LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs looked efficient on home court this Saturday night, taking down the Ryerson Rams in three easy sets going 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-18).
Ryerson came into the match sitting at third in the OUA East division with a 3-2 record. With a 3-1 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues the night prior, the Mustangs rolled into the game claiming the third spot in the OUA West.
"It was an important back to back game, second games back to back are always a little bit tougher, so we just wanted to fight hard right from the start and be relentless so I think we did a great job of that" noted Setter #Matt Hooker#.
The Mustangs looked dominate right from the first serve of the game. Staking a lead early in the first set, the purple and white rolled through the Ram's defense, capitalizing on errors while remaining efficient on offense.
#Evan Cranshaw# punctuated the lead with two aces to bring the purple and white to 8-2. Cranshaw, alongside #Gianfranco Sartor# and #Evan Hammond# were key in the Mustangs offensive efforts with the Outsider and Middle recording three kills each in the first frame.
The Mustangs finished off the set with ease, with a kill from first year #Jackson Bere# to put the final score at 25-17.
The Rams started the second set with a lead for the first time in the game, before seeing the Mustangs make quick work to equalize the score at sixes. Both sides exchanged points for the rest of the set, never straying more then two points from the other.
Hooker noted the Rams improvement as the set progressed. "In the second set they played a bit more consistently, didn't make as many errors and we weren't as dominate with our attack. Brady [Fidler] had a great second set which really kept us in it and then we were able to close it out in the end."
Left side #Brady Fidler# made his mark on the set, collecting seven kills throughout the frame and shifting the momentum in favour of the purple and white.
The Ram's Xander Ketrynski powered the opposing offense, and was by far the most dominate of anyone on Ryerson's side by recording 12 kills and three serving aces over the course of the game.
Edging out the Rams 25-23, the purple and white concluded the set with a block from Bere to bring them to 2-0 on the game.
Looking to move past the closely contested second set, the Mustangs blew past the Rams right from the start to create an early lead. With a new found energy, the purple and white consistently maintained a five point buffer for the first half of the set.
Ryerson managed to edge into the Mustangs lead by taking advantage of Western's mistakes to close the gap to 16-13, which would ultimately be their closest point gap of the set.
Maintaining their dominate run, the purple and white held a clean offensive performance in their last five points of the set to end the game 3-0. A series of kills from Hammond, Fidler and Cranshaw helped move Western towards game point, as they also continued to capitalize off of Ryerson's errors.
Head Coach Jim Sage noted how consistent play has pushed the Mustangs in their last two games, noting Hooker and Libero #Nathan Phelps# as key components of the Mustangs success. "We really talk about team effort and if everybody contributes and does their job then we're going to have success and we've been really preaching that and it's been working. Matt Hooker, my Setter, had another good match, just steady, consistent and just does really good things out there and I thought our Libero, Nathan Phelps, had a really good game when it mattered against some pretty good servers."
The Mustangs will be in action again this Friday, November 23 2018, as they hit the road to face off against the Windsor Lancers in Windsor, Ont.
