TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams headed into Toronto's Goldring Centre for the OUA Semi-Final looking to avenge their regular season ending loss to the Mustangs just two weeks ago. In just three short sets (18-25, 15-25, 19-25), they achieved their goal while securing themselves a spot in the gold medal match.
 
The loss sends the Mustangs to Saturday's bronze medal game, where they'll take on the McMaster Marauders, who fell to Toronto in Friday's other semi-final.
 
OUA First Team All-Star Aja Gyimah led the offensive effort for Western with twelve points from nine kills to be awarded the Mustangs' Player of the Game. Her 10 digs also made her one of the best defensive performers of the night. Kelsey Veltman came in behind with eight points, while veteran Serena Smith picked up five.
 
Theanna Vernon, also receiving an OUA First Team nod earlier this week, led the Rams to victory with 14 points to earn Player of the Game honours for the Rams. Just one point behind was fellow All-Star Veronica Livingston.
 
An uncharacteristically slow start for the Mustangs saw them stalled at the gate and chasing down Ryerson for the entire first set. 
 
The team's typical standouts in Veltman and Gyimah appeared to have met their match in Vernon and Livingston. Vernon, last year's OUA East Rookie of the Year, is the only athlete in the league to top Veltman's attack efficiency. Meanwhile, Livingstone leads in kills per set.
 
Friday's matchup also proved that Vernon and Livingston are also nearly impossible to top when it comes to blocking. With the Rams' leading duo dominating at the net, Western's attacks slowly started landing on the wrong side of the paint as they looked to avoid being shut down.
 
In a flashback to last week's contest against the Gryphons, Western again found difficulty on the serve and serve receive. A number of errors came out of Western's end of the court, while Ryerson dominated from the baseline and landed a number of aces, eventually handing the Mustangs an 18-25 first set loss.
 
The second set looked as if the Rams would again control the pace of the game from the baseline as they opened things up with yet another ace. The Mustangs had a different idea, as they followed up with five consecutive points to build up a solid early lead.
 
The Rams began to diversify their game at the net to put a bigger focus on Sim Gill, Jena Bonello, and Kristine Yan in addition to Vernon and Livingston. The full team effort kept the attacks unpredictable, and as a result the Mustangs struggled to keep up.
 
The early lead put up by Western was flattened after unforced purple and white errors handed unearned points over to the Rams.
 
As Ryerson edged closer and closer to the final points of the set the Mustangs struggled to close the gap. Athletic dives were replaced with one-armed reaches while attacks began to fall closer to the back wall than the attack line.
 
While the Mustangs managed a few kills that drew audible reactions from the crowd, they couldn't tear down the commanding lead built up by the Rams and dropped the second at 15-25.
 
The Mustangs completely flipped the script to open up the third set with a commanding lead, but struggled to keep the surging Rams at an arm's length in what would prove to be the most competitive set of the night.
 
Improved accuracy was the major game-changer for Western, as both serves and attacks were finally hitting their marks within the boundaries of the floor. Courtney Sestric and Smith patrolled the backcourt to keep rallies going and give setter Kat Tsiofas an easy first touch to work with.
 
The Mustang blockers were also better able to track Ryerson's attackers to land touches, but struggled to keep the ball within the confines of the court. The few points lost on blocks knocked out of bounds were enough for the Rams to stay in the game and eventually gave way to an comeback.
 
After a quiet second set Vernon exploded onto the floor for the third, while Livingston continued to command attention with her own powerful attack. The duo led the offensive effort, but it was arguably Julie Longman who had the biggest role in turning momentum towards Ryerson.
 
The third year libero put forward one of the most impressive performances of the night to keep rallies going on Ryerson's half of the court, and handled Western's attackers better than most of her OUA counterparts had throughout the entire regular season. With the Newmarket native in the back court, the Rams cruised to a 19-25 victory.
 
The Mustangs will now get set for the OUA Bronze Medal Game, tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Goldring Centre. Catch all the action live on OUA.tv