Men’s volleyball is beat by Warriors

By William Brown

The Ryerson men’s volleyball team lost 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 24-26, 25-17, 15-8) in a tight game against the Waterloo University Warriors on Saturday. The loss drops the Rams to 10-8 — four points back of York University for fourth in OUA rankings.

“I think, at the end of the game, we were undisciplined in our passing,” Robert Wojcik said. “In the third set, it was 20-20, and the passing broke down, and we lost the set.”

The Rams started strong, taking an early 6-0 lead on route to a 25-18 first set win. Wojcik and outside hitter Stefan Ristic gave the Rams the early advantage, but numerous errors by Ryerson kept the Warriors close.

“It’s frustrating because at points we were dominant; they couldn’t stop us,” Wojcik said. “It’s frustrating when it’s a discipline issue that costs us the win.”

The second and third sets were not as friendly to the Rams as the first. They fell behind two sets to one including a pivotal third set, which the Warriors won 26-24. Ultimately, after another dominating set in the fourth, the Rams dashed their momentum and lost the final set 15-8.

“It’s not disappointing,” head coach Mirek Porosa said. “We lost in five sets to a nationally ranked team — we were the underdogs; they were the favourites. I praise our guys for sticking with it until the end, the fifth set is a lottery and we just fell flat.”

Setter Adam Anagnostopoulos said the Rams came up short on Saturday, but is confident that they could beat the Warriors if they them play again.

“Honestly, we gave them that game,” Anagnostopoulos said. “There’s nothing there that scares me, nothing there that I’m worried about at all.”

The loss cements the Rams’ fifth place position in in the OUA. There are three games left in the regular season.

“At this point, I think we’re pretty much locked into fifth for the rest of the season,” Anagnostopoulos said. “Hopefully we can get a little bit of momentum going into the playoffs.”

The Rams play their final home game against Guelf before hitting the road to take on the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University in their final two games of the regular season.