By Raphael Chahinian
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women’s volleyball team won their first game of the season on Saturday afternoon in a four-set victory over the University of Windsor Lancers at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
The Bold now hold a 1-1 record after their game against the Western University Mustangs was postponed due to refereeing issues on Oct. 28.
“At the start, we were making a lot of setting and hitting errors,” said third-year hitter Scarlett Gingera. “We needed to clean up our game and play our style of volleyball.”
This was a highly anticipated matchup due to the bad blood and rivalry between the Bold and the Lancers previously. The rivalry arose last year after TMU lost 0-2 against Windsor in a short road trip. TMU was continuously chirped throughout the match and needless to say, the chirping continued today.
In the first set, the Lancers looked dominant at the net with several clean blocks and thunderous kills. On the other hand, the Bold struggled to get their offence going with several unforced errors and hitting mistakes that gave Windsor the early lead.
Although the Bold struggled to get out of the gates, they cleaned up enough to take the first set by a score of 25-20.
The second set came with the emergence of fifth-year hitter Lauren Veltman who dominated the net and had multiple monster kills. “We did a great job of setting up out-of-system balls,” said Veltman. “The team knew where to put the ball and I felt super consistent.”
Veltman is now back with the Bold after taking some time off and is accompanied by her sister, fourth-year middle Britney Veltman.
“The team helped me build up my confidence”
The second set was ultimately a disappointment for the Bold after a Windsor kill led to a 23-25 set loss for TMU.
The third set, however, was where the Bold put their foot on the gas and never looked back. They played a cohesive and powerful brand of volleyball that head coach Dustin Reid was very proud of.
“In the third, we really imposed our style of play on the game,” said Reid. “While we did a good job of defending them for the entire match, our play at the net and aggressiveness was much better in the third.”
After the chirping continued in the second set, the Bold dominated the third set and won by a score of 25-15.
The fourth and final set was a continuation of the third, filled with sheer TMU dominance and aggressive play at the net. Veltman and Gingera continued to put the hammer down with a series of kills and the team rallied off of their energy.
“The team helped me build up my confidence,” said Gingera. “My mindset was to go back to the basics, be aggressive and swing hard.”
After several unforced errors from the Lancers and textbook defence from the Bold, TMU walked away from the fourth set with a 25-12 win, handing them the match in four sets.
“We have to expect Windsor to play very well tomorrow,” said Reid. “We have to be prepared to start tomorrow the way we did in our last three sets.”
UP NEXT: The Bold will once again face off against the Lancers tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the MAC.
Leave a Reply