By Nashra Syed
The Rams women’s volleyball team lost its first home game of the new year against the York Lions on Feb. 12 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
Despite a strong effort from the Rams, they were dominated by the Lions, unable to find their first win of the season. With the loss, the Rams fell to 0-8 on the year heading into next week’s matches against the University of Toronto.
“It’s not easy to keep getting negative results,” said Rams head coach Dustin Reid. “We took a set off [the University of] Toronto in the fall so if we can play the way that we’re capable of then who knows.”
“We just want to take another positive step in next week’s matches and then we’ve got to decide how we’re going to play our best together in the remaining [games],” he added.
The Rams deployed a starting lineup of outside hitter Jia Lonardi, middle Ashley Ditchfield, outside hitter Mikayla Sherriffs, middle Katelyn Grasman, setter Sarah Zonneveld and outside hitter Scarlett Gingera.
With Zonneveld kicking things off with the first set off with a serve, the Rams had a slow start with the Lions jumping out to a 3-0 lead. However, the Rams made a comeback thanks to an attack error by the Lions and a service ace by Lonardi.
The back and forth battle continued throughout the first set with some core saves by libero Mary Ann Rioflordio and Gingera and a kill by Ditchfield.
The Rams took the first timeout of the game after a kill from York made the score 16-11 Lions. Soon after, Ryerson decided to take another pause with the visitors leading 17-14. Following a quick regroup, they were able to make a recovery later in the set, trailing the Lions by a score of 21-17.
But the Rams were unable to pull through and lost the set with a close score of 25-20.
The second set started off strong for the Rams with an attack error being made by the Lions. However, hope of a close game was put to an end with the Lions making consistent kills, forcing the Rams into a 7-3 deficit.
Consistency from the Rams helped them make up ground and cut York’s lead to 15-10 after a serve from Ditchfield and kill from Lonardi. Following a service error from Gingera, the Rams failed to tie the game, providing the Lions with the momentum needed to take the second set 25-17.
Pressure was on the Rams entering the third set. A sloppy start from the Lions gave the home team a point early on, giving them some confidence. With constant kills and attacks from the Lions, the Rams trailed behind 12-5.
A service error by the Lions helped the Rams cut away at the lead and move things to a score of 15-7, but that wasn’t enough for them to climb back in the set.
A great dive made by third-year libero Samantha Cyrille was followed by a kill from the Lions. Later on in the set, a service error by the Lions was enough for the Rams to continue their charge and move the score from 23-12 to 24-17 prior to a Lions timeout.
But the Rams’ charge wasn’t enough Saturday night, as a final kill from the Lions ended the game with the third set score coming to 25-18 for the visitors.
“We played a very good match today [and] made very few mistakes,” said Reid. “We have to get better at a lot of things [and] we have to get better at how we play together, but in terms of how we competed, I was quite thrilled.”
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