TORONTO – A career-high 18 point night from Lucas Coleman (Brooklin, Ont.) helped propel the Ryerson Rams men's volleyball team (2-1) to a straight sets (25-17, 25-19, 26-24) victory over the Queen's Gaels on Friday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
Coach Porosa's video highlights
Coleman racked up a game-high 15 kills and added two blocks and a service ace for his 18 point effort.
The Rams blockers set the tone early in the first set which helped the home side jump out to an 11-5 advantage. Ryerson went on to record 13 blocks during the match.
A Marc Reardon (London, Ont.) kill gave the Rams a 16-10 advantage at the technical timeout and the Rams cruised from there, closing the set at 25-17 to take a 1-0 lead.
Ryerson's tempo carried over into the second set and the Rams held a 16-11 lead at the technical. Queen's made a run out of the timeout to cut the lead down to 17-15 which forced a Rams timeout but Ryerson responded with the next four points and went on to win the set 25-19.
The Rams fell behind in the third set and trailed by as many as six at 11-5 but the home side rallied with a 4-0 run to get back within striking distance and eventually took the lead going into the technical timeout at 16-15.
The teams traded points for much of the remainder of the set but an ill-timed Queen's service error gave Ryerson a 25-24 advantage and the duo of Uchenna Ofoha (Markham, Ont.) and George Sakvarelidze (Toronto) sealed the game with a block, giving Ryerson the 26-24 set win to sweep the Gaels.
“I am very proud of my guys for how they played the first two sets. We knew that Queen's is a difficult team to play against. We took some risk on service…and kept them off the net and kind of simplified,” said head coach Mirek Porosa following the match.
Lucas Coleman was quick to credit his teammates for helping in his performance on Friday.
“I thought offensively I did pretty well [but it] made it easier with the guys passing so well. Will (Otten) and Alex (Dawson) helped me out a lot and let me focus more on my offence.”
Otten (Delaware, Ont.) finished with ten digs to lead all players.
Markus Trence was the top point-getter for the Gaels, finishing with nine points on eight kills and a block.
The Rams return to the court on Saturday when they host the RMC Paladins at 8:00 p.m.
