By Daniel Carrero
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball team lost the second leg of a doubleheader against the Waterloo Warriors in a season-defining game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) on Saturday afternoon.
The Bold arrived at the matchup with high hopes after a five-set thriller on Friday night. With playoff contention still in reach, TMU currently sits ninth in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings, from which only the first eight qualify for playoffs.
Even though the Bold gave everything, it wasn’t enough to overcome the Warriors.
“Both teams were kind of begging for their team to win the game and we just didn’t take advantage of it,” said head coach Niko Rukavina. “They defended better than us, and I think that was probably the reason we lost the game.”
The Bold kicked off the game with second-year setter Evan Moua in the starting lineup after his stellar display the night prior. This marked three starts in four consecutive games for the Kitchener, Ont. product.
“[Moua’s] serve brings a weapon to us that we didn’t have before and the offence has been clicking,” said Rukavina. “It’s tough on him not being a starter and then playing 10 sets in two days. But he handled himself really well.”
From the first set, the game carried the same thrill as Friday—a close game from the start, trading punch-for-punch with both teams struggling to create damage from serves. Instead, the first 24 points of the game featured eight service errors, with six errors from Waterloo and two from the Bold.
With every attempt from the Warriors to extend their lead off the hands of second-year opposite Nolan Reed, third-year outside hitter Lucas Redmann and fourth-year middle blocker Fehin Awobodu, serving mistakes allowed the Bold to trail just behind them.
After fourth-year middle Bobby Tang secured a point from a strong block—followed by a kill to tie the game at 17-17—the momentum belonged to the Bold. In an attempt to stop it, Reed missed the court and with the Bold’s first advantage of the game at 18-17, Waterloo called for a timeout.
With good defensive efforts from the Bold and two consecutive hits from third-year outside hitter Riley Donovan, TMU distanced themselves with the score at 22-20. Waterloo resorted to their second timeout of the set.
The timeout proved successful enough to allow the Warriors to regain the lead and take the first set at 25-23.
The first set theme transferred into the second with another slew of service errors to kick off the frame—five errors in nine points. The game needed someone to set the tone. Donovan was the chosen man to do the job, tying the game at 5-5 with a kill.
The Bold started to distance themselves from the Warriors after scoring four consecutive points from a misserve from second-year outside hitter Daniel Nikashov, a service ace from Moua and two error attacks from Awobodu. With the score at 12-8, the Warriors relied on the timeout to regain control of the game.
Despite Waterloo’s efforts to close the gap, graduate right side Alex King was set to win the offensive battle over the Warriors’ defence wall. King led the Bold with 17 kills in the match.
Waterloo quickly understood to focus on King and the right side, but Moua made sure to distribute the ball to other hitters on his squad. Fourth-year outside hitter Jacob Walker and Donovan on the left side of the court allowed the Bold to maintain the lead to the 23-20 mark.
“Coming off the bench and not being used to a starter role, I was excited to play, obviously a bit nervous,” said Moua.
From there, both teams traded punches, disputed the lead and ultimately extended the set up to the 30-30 mark. Following a service ace by Redmann that Walker couldn’t dig, TMU called for a timeout that proved enough to stop Redmann’s momentum and force a service error.
The Bold closed the second set at 33-31 with a kill from Donovan and a dump over the net from second-year outside hitter Day Westell.
To set the tone early in the third set, Waterloo placed three-man blocks on Donovan en route to a 5-3 advantage. Despite the Warriors’ strong offensive sequences, their persistent service errors only allowed them to maintain a two-point lead until the 12-10 mark, which was followed by a kill by Tang and an attack error from Reddmann.
The score stayed close until the 16-16 mark. Following three strong blocks by Waterloo’s wall—led by Awobodu—the Warriors gained momentum and wouldn’t let it go for the rest of the set, finishing it at 25-21.
The Bold gained the lead quickly in the fourth set, as swings from Tang, Donovan and King set the score at 7-3. Waterloo quickly reacted with a timeout, but strong backspin serves from King proved to be a continuous threat.
Following the timeout, the Bold came back with added passion. However, after deliberating with the referee about the way the Warriors’ handled the ball, King ultimately received a yellow card after celebrating a point directly at the referee.
“There’s gonna be bad calls, there’s gonna be good calls, there’s going to be bad refs, bad linesman, but at the end of the day, we just have to move on,” said Moua. “Today’s reffing wasn’t great…I don’t think reffing has lost us this game.”
The Bold placed their anger towards the referee into the power of their hits. With a seven-point difference, the Bold had good read of Waterloo’s intentions. The Warriors had to call for help and with the game set at 15-8—taking a timeout became the only way to stop the Bold from doing more damage.
Prior to this matchup, the Bold needed to win two of their following three games to even dream about reaching the playoffs. Consequently, they were not going to release their foot off the pedal.
After Waterloo used both timeouts, the Bold unravelled, finishing the set at 25-12 and pushing for a fifth and final set.
The beast was out and the Warriors focused on trying to tame it. They were so focused they even forgot to rotate their players around the court, gifting the Bold one of a few early points in the fifth set.
Despite the Bold having the advantage, efforts from Redmann, Awobodu and a double block from fourth-year middle blocker AJ Nichols and Reed kept things tied at 5-5.
Following a kill from Redmann and a double block by Reed and Awobodu, Waterloo gained the lead at 11-9. The Bold called for a timeout to recoup and organize their defensive sequences.
Nevertheless, The Warriors made it hard for the Bold to read their plays as they kept on switching their team round. After two consecutive points from Reed and a misserve from King, the Warriors were on the verge of victory at 14-10.
The set ended at 15-11 after Walker made a serving mistake.
“Nobody likes losing in five [sets] but a lot of good things happened this weekend,” said Moua. “I don’t want to go away from this day thinking we played bad.”
The Bold have one last opportunity to dream for the postseason against the York Lions next weekend. The Bold must win both games of the doubleheader to have a chance to qualify for the OUA playoffs.
The Lions currently sit third in the OUA standings and have a 14-3 record. Despite the odds, Rukavina is “not too stressed.”
“They’re ahead of us in the standings, but I don’t think they’re so far ahead of us in the level of play,” said Rukavina. “[We] still have home-court advantage and if we play good TMU volleyball, I think we can beat them.”
UP NEXT: The Bold will play their last double header of the season against the York Lions on their last chance to secure a playoff spot. First-serve flies at 8 p.m. on Feb. 14 at the MAC.
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