Ryerson Rams at York Lions

Men’s Volleyball

3 pm at Tait McKenzie

 

The York Lions came into this affair with a 1 – 6 record, the Ryerson Rams at 3 – 4. It was anybody’s game on paper. The Rams looked a bit bigger, a little extra volleyball lank on their side. 11 Greg McDonald of the Rams was the only top 20 ranked player on either team as far as OUA statistics go.

 

The first set was hotly contested. The lead was traded back and forth as the set went deep. The Rams McDonald laid into some kills, 1 Chris McLaughlin threw in some hard kills, backed by his Movember moustache, and 7 Luka Milosevic put some emphasis into some kills himself as well, though he did miss a serve here and there. The York Lions fired as hard as they could from power. 1 Ray Szeto (“The Flyin’ Hawaiian”) and 15 Karim (“The Dream”) Khalil kept pounding the ball at the Ryerson defence for the duration of the set. In the end, the attack wasn’t multi-faceted enough, and Ryerson took the early lead 25 - 22, 1 Set to 0.

 

In the second set, York began incorporating 13 Sam Song on the right side more often. Their middle players also began throwing up a consistent blocking game. The story of the second set became York’s defence against Ryerson’s hard-hitting, but at times inconsistent offence. York could fend off the first, and often second attacks, eventually getting the error long. Service errors became a problem for the Rams, but they managed to maintain a lead of 21 – 17.

 

It was at this point that I began hearing 4 “Crazy” Greg Ivan come out of the announcers mic a bit too often. Seriously often. He couldn’t get enough of those nicknames. But the Lions turned the score from 4 down to lead at set point 24 – 21. Ryerson’s inconsistent but hard-hitting Milosevic was subbed out at serve, but the Rams could only manage 23 before giving up the side out. York went into the third set with momentum, now at 1 set a piece.

 

From that point on, the energy changed. York’s 2 Felipe Humana-Parades started becoming a regular name. Szeto kept hitting. “Crazy” Greg Ivan starting nailing rips and quicks on top of his blocking presence. The Rams continued to serve poorly, and the points began to rack up because of it. The third and fourth set seemed to move systematically. The Rams became more disheartened, looked to become frustrated with officiating, and were visibly going to drop the fourth set halfway through.

 

The final score was 22 - 25, 25 - 23, 25 - 17, 25 - 17, for the York Lions.

 

Maybe it was heart, maybe it was coaching, maybe it was the consistent swap of Song and 11 Paul Jaubiak for 10 Marvin Macalino and 16 Denis Malinowski to get extra right side attacks from front court, but the York Lions move to 2 – 6. They host Guelph and McMaster respectively this coming weekend.

 

The Ryerson Rams fall to 3 – 5. This weekend they host McMaster first, followed by Guelph.

 

All teams, Men and Womens, will finish up for the Christmas break by November 28^th.

 

Line up

            Ryerson Rams

1             Chris McLaughlin

2             Anthony Kentris

3             Robert Earl

4             Bryce Workman

5             Anqi Zhou

6             Milad Chitan

7             Luka Milosevic

8             Brett Lantz

9             Brett Penrose

10            Sven Curic

11            Greg McDonald

12            Roman Kabanov

13            Aleksa Miladinovic

14            Stefan Ristic

15            George Sakvarelidze

 

            York Lions

1             Ray Szeto

2             Felipe Humana-Parades

3             Tom Podstawka

4             Gregory Ivan

5             Nikola Sandic

7             Elias Mardani

8             Kyle De Medeiros

9             Timothy Yu

10            Marvin Macalino

11            Paul Jakubiak

12            Michael Kostiuk

13            Sam Song

15            Karim Khalil

16            Denis Malinowski