By Aswin Priyadharshan

The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) women’s volleyball team won in dominant fashion against the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins in a straight-set 3-0 victory at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).

Coming off a two-game losing streak, the Bold looked to get back on track and make a run for the playoffs. Head coach Dustin Reid explained what impressed him the most about his team.

“We were dictating the game the whole time, especially at the start of each set and establishing a lead. I think that made it tough for RMC. [They] fought back well in the third set, but we didn’t have any dips in our performance.”

In the first set, the Bold set the tone early, recording 21 points to RMC’s five. This onslaught was accompanied by third-year outside hitter Tyra Krapp’s serving who at one point in the game recorded four straight aces.

“[Krapp] is always doing that for our squad,” said Reid. “Always doing things that go mostly unnoticed and allows other people to have success. Her serving was great tonight. She made some great digs and some very smart blocks.”

RMC put up five more points on the board before second-year outside hitter Hannah Bellai recorded the final kill of the set.

The second set showed more of the same dominance, with several kills going for the Bold and RMC having service issues.

In the third set, RMC began showing some fight by keeping the game in reach with nine points to TMU’s 15. But second-year outside hitter Rian Lenarduzzi started heating up and would go on to record three straight kills to bring a more comfortable lead to her team, ultimately sealing the victory.

Lenarduzzi had a career-high eight kills in tonight’s game.

“I think for me, it’s just focusing on my connection with the setters,” noted Lenarduzzi. “It’s something we’ve been working on all season and then it’s just executing and competing at the level that I can, holding myself to that quality.”

For Lenarduzzi, the gameplan to winning more games is maintaining a high quality of play throughout the season.

“Just knowing what we can do on our side and making sure that we don’t allow ourselves to drop our level,” said Lenarduzzi. “Especially when we still have a chance at the playoffs potentially, so we’re kind of keeping that in mind as we go into [our second match].”

UP NEXT: The Bold will have a rematch against the Paladins at the MAC later today. First serve is at 4 p.m.