TORONTO- Nikola Sandic and Ray Szeto combined for 17 kills, and the York Lions tallied their second-straight victory with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-16) win over the Ryerson Rams on Saturday afternoon at Kerr Hall Gym.
Luka Milosevic tallied eight kills, while Alex Dawson added five in the loss for the Rams, who drop to 2-5 on the season. York improves to 4-4.
BOXSCORE
Coach's Video Highlights
The Lions streaked out of the gate, going up 6-2 on the Rams in the opening set. A big block by Nicola Sandic on Roman Kabanov extended the lead, but Ryerson cut into the advantage after rookies Brandon Jordan and Dawson tallied back-to-back kills. York held a 16-13 advantage at the technical timeout.
However, consecutive errors by the Rams spread the deficit, and with the Lions up 19-14, Head Coach Mirek Porosa called his second timeout to rally the men. Another monster kill by Jordan brought Ryerson within four, but an error by Marc Reardon on the following serve restored a comfortable Lions advantage. Another serve error by Milosevic handed the visitors a 1-0 match lead.
The teams both came out streaky in the second. The host Rams jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but York answered with five unanswered to re-take the lead. A kill by Karim Khalil gave the Lions a 9-6 advantage as Ryerson continued to commit errors off their serve.
Luck didn't seem to be on the home side, as a dig of a hard Rams spike sailed over the net and found the open court to give York a 16-9 lead at the technical. A kill by Felipe Humaña-Paredes sent the Rams right back to the bench as Porosa called a timeout to talk things over. An ace by Gregory Ivan only spread the lead soon after that, and Milosevic finally stopped the bleeding with a tip off a block to get the Rams in double-digits.
Reardon came up with a block to help the men try and claw their way back into contention, but another York kill by Szeto put a timely stop to the momentum. A strong beginning for Ryerson in the second quickly turned into a 2-0 match lead for the Lions, as a block by Ivan gave York the middle set.
The Lions doubled the Rams score in the third, going up 8-4 before an error by Jordan spread the lead to five. Consecutive blocks by Ryerson cut the deficit to three, but York's offense continued to stay hot as Szeto picked up another kill and followed that up with a block to double the lead again.
Ryerson could not muster enough momentum to threaten the Lions from that point on, and would fall for the third time in as many contests.
The Rams return to Kerr Hall Gym tomorrow afternoon for their final home match of 2011. They will take on the Toronto Varsity Blues at 12:00 p.m.
This weekend there will be a canned food drive run at all Ryerson Rams home games. Spectators who donate two canned goods get free admission to the game.
