Box Score The Warriors were on the road to face the OUA #2 ranked Ryerson Rams on Sunday afternoon in a match which was largely determined by momentum swings and opportune point runs. Waterloo fell to the Rams in 5 sets (13-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 5-15) and move to 1-8 on the season while Ryerson sits second in the OUA East with an 8-1 record.
In the opening set, Ryerson jumped out to an early 5-1 lead and established their offensive rhythm. Ryerson would lead 16-10 at the technical timeout and steal 9 of the next 13 points to close out the first set 25-13 to take an early 1-0 lead in the match. Waterloo struggled to get their offence rolling and was not strong enough on the defensive side of the ball to bridge the gap.
The Warriors seemed much more determined in the 2
nd set as they establishing a strong offence on the back of
Emily Needles (Thorndale)s and gathered a 15-10 lead midway through the set. After Ryerson closed the gap to just one with Waterloo leading 19-18,
Natasha Spaling (Drayton) and
Casey Clunas (Harriston) would combine for 4 of the next 6 Waterloo points and complete a 25-21 victory to knot the match at 1 set a piece.
In the third set, Ryerson was intent on seeking revenge and ran a relentless offence and established a huge 20-9 lead. The momentum seemed to shift as Waterloo would not go down without a fight and shortened the gap to 22-18 off strong play from
Sammie Gwozdz (Waterloo) but it was too-little, too-late as the blue and white hung on for a 25-21 to set up a fourth set that saw Ryerson leading 2-1.
Waterloo capitalized on the late push to open up the third set with a 9-3 lead on the back of Needles who was making strong decisions with the ball. The Warriors extended their lead to 19-9 as
Shannon Lodoen (Waterloo) put together a strong contingent of serves which fooled Ryerson. Contradictory to the third set, Ryerson would make a push to shorten the lead to 22-19 in favour of the Warriors but both teams would exchange points before Waterloo took the set 25-21 forcing a fifth and deciding set.
The Rams were relentless out of the gate jumping out to a 6-1 lead. In the shortened set, it was an uphill battle for the Warriors and Ryerson eventually took the match 15-5 on the back of Chelsea Briscoe.
Leading the way for Waterloo was captain Spaling who scored 12 kills and 2 blocks while
Claire Mackenzie (Vancouver) chipped in nicely with 8 kills, 13 digs and 2 solo blocks. Needles added 41 assists and 8 digs with Gwozdz adding 10 kills and 6 digs in the losing efforts.
The Rams saw key contributions from Theanna Vernon who had 12 kills, 3 digs, 6 solo blocks and 2 service aces while Veronica Livingston followed closely behind with 17 kills, 7 digs and 1 solo block.
The black and gold will conclude their pre-exam schedule next Friday when they host the Guelph Gryphons at 6pm in the PAC. Catch all the action on OUA TV.
