By Nicholas Vanderham

The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball team swept the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins with a 4-0 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC), marking their first victory of the new semester.

This is the Bold’s second preseason came, coming off a 3-1 loss to the Guelph University Gryphons last week. Now up against a statistically weaker opponent, TMU looked to pounce and get into winning ways.

Both teams brought the energy early. The set was a tight one throughout, with no team really managing separation from each other. RMC kept the Bold in the game with a variety of attack errors and missed spikes. Ultimately the set was tied 17-all when spikes from second-year middle Aidan Suttie and second-year right side Ross Buchanan aided in TMU’s tying efforts.

The Bold were able to pull through late, capturing the set 25-20, taking a 1-0 lead.

TMU kept the momentum into the second set, holding one point and two points leads consistently through the rallies. The Paladins refused to bow down easily, towering with blocks throughout the mid-set. The Set was tied 12 all. 

It was at this moment that second-year outside hitter Brayden Walker stepped up with a kill and four aces in the row from the service line to push the Bold through and claim the second set. 

Walker looked back on his second set takeover stating, “the guys gave me the opportunities to swing on some balls, it makes it a lot easier when the guys before you do their job.” 

After replicating the exact scoreline as the first, TMU took the second set to lead 2-0, putting the pressure on RMC if they wished to stay alive.

The train kept rolling for the TMU offense, kicking off the hopeful final set with an 8-2 lead. The Paladins sideline looked defeated, unable to find the supportive energy they had in the first two stanzas. The Bold bench however, was electrified knowing that their first win of the season could potentially be within reach. 

“We knew it was going to be a good game and it was not going to be a big crowd so we had to bring our own energy and I thought our bench did a terrific job,” said Bold head coach Niko Rukavina.

With that said, RMC found their second wind, rallying back and nearly evening up the match at 20 as TMU watched their lead slowly slip.

In the end, TMU were able to creep out some sneaky spikes with the help of second-year outside hitter Darius Best, allowing them to push over the finish line and secure the final set and the 3-0 sweep victory.

The two sides decided to play an extra practice set, in which TMU also claimed to extend the win to 4-0.

UP NEXT: The Bold rematch the Paladins, looking for two straight on Sunday. The scheduled start time is 12 p.m. at the MAC