Rams Women’s volleyball team defeated by Western on senior night

By Premila D’Sa

The Ryerson women’s volleyball were defeated in a close game against the Western Mustangs (26-28, 24-26, 21-25) on Feb. 20 at the Mattamy Athletic centre.

The game took place on seniors’ night at Ryerson University, a day after the Rams came off a win against the University of Windsor Lancers.

Head coach Dustin Reid says the Rams were excited coming into the game, especially since it was senior day.

“We should have won all three sets”, said Reid. “We allowed them [Western] to score a lot of points without having to work very hard and didn’t play very well as a unit defensively.”

The score stayed close throughout the game, but several mistakes made by the Rams left them at a loss against the competitive Western Mustangs.

The first set started out very tight with fast play and consecutive scoring from each side. Ram’s Theanna Vernon played strong defensively, with several blocks at the net against the Mustangs. But despite the tight score, slip ups with serving and lack of defense on the Ram’s side gave Western the edge letting them win the set by 2 points.

Learning from the mistakes in the first set, the Rams game became much tighter in the second. Game play became competitive with intense back and forth. The Rams started strong in the beginning but the Mustangs caught up. Just as the rams were starting to lose their lead, they started to fight back after quick timeout during the middle of the set. Kristine Yan and Jena Bonello came through in with strong attacks, helping even the score with Western. Julie Longman played well defensively, with several impressive digs. The score stayed very close throughout but a couple attacks errors by the Rams and dominant offensive play from the Mustangs put Western on top.

The Rams continued to push back in the third set, starting strong. The game got more intense with competitive back and forth play. Vernon and Bonello kept pushing through for the team. The score stayed close but the Rams lost their edge towards the end.

Coach Reid questioned the referee towards the end of the set about a four consecutive call made against Ryerson after the ball hit a player’s head and the team played it over.

“I didn’t see it as four contact, I saw it as three,” said Reid.

But the referees defended their call giving Western the point. The Mustangs dominated towards the end and defeated Ryerson by four points in their final set.

Reid was understandably disappointed but more so for his senior players, with the loss happening on such sentimental night.

“They’ve played a big part in transforming this program from where it was 5 years ago.”