TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams women's volleyball team moved to 3-0 on the season with a straight sets win over the Queen's Gaels (25-17, 25-15, 25-22) on Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
Veronica Livingston (Kelowna, B.C.) had a game-high 11 kills while Theanna Vernon (Scarborough, Ont.) added ten to lead the Rams to victory.
The Rams team defence was the story of the match as the home squad racked up 50 digs to just 33 by the Gaels to extend rallies and allow the Ryerson hitters an opportunity to score. Ryerson also won the battle at the net, posting eight blocks, five more than the Gaels.
Ryerson jumped out to an early lead in the first set due in large part to a 5-0 run with Emily Nicholishen (Whitby, Ont.) providing a strong service game. One of Livingston's four first-set kills gave Ryerson a 16-9 advantage at the technical timeout and the Rams cruised from there, taking the first set 25-17.
The Rams fell behind 4-1 out of the gate in the second set but were able to rally a comeback by taking advantage of a few Gaels' miscues. Those miscues sparked a 6-0 run which helped the home side swing the score in their favour. By the technical timeout the Rams had doubled up the Gaels 16-8. An efficient attack down the stretch helped the Rams close out the second set at 25-15 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Rams looked poised to make quick work of the Gaels in the third after jumping out to a 6-1 lead, a point differential that would hold right through to the technical timeout where Ryerson led 16-11.
Queen's rallied late in the set to tie the match at 18-18 but the visitors could never find the advantage and after being tied 22-22, the Rams closed the set with the final three points to complete the sweep.
“We served well and covered our attackers really well so when we got blocked we were in position to recover [and] we balanced our offence fairly well,” said head coach Dustin Reid following the game when asked what the keys were to Friday's victory.
Chelsea Briscoe (Georgetown, Ont.) contributed eight kills and four blocks to the Rams offence, while Julie Longman (Newmarket, Ont.) had another strong game defensively with 13 digs.
Brett Hagarty had a team-high seven kills in the losing effort for Queen's.
The Rams will return to the court on Saturday evening when they host the RMC Paladins at 6:00 p.m.
