On Saturday, March 10, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team played the Western Mustangs in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze medal match. The game took place at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. It was a five-set game where the women lost 3-2.
The Blues started off the match strong with third-year outside hitter and OUA East player of the year, Alina Dormann, leading her team in points. The Blues kept a large lead ahead of the Mustangs for the majority of the set before taking it 25-14.
The second set of the game was much closer in score. The Mustangs came out hard and were relentless, but the strength of the Blues defense was very prominent and the set resulted in another win for U of T at 25-21.
With the Blues leading the game 2-0 and only needing to win one more set to take the game, the Mustangs were clearly not ready to give up just yet. Halfway through the set, the Mustangs were leading 16-8. The Blues fell too far behind and struggled to build their way back up. The Mustangs won their first set of the game at 25-16.
The Blues, clearly struggling, fell behind once again in the fourth set of the game. The Mustangs carried their momentum from the third set to the fourth set and once again won the match 25-16.
A fifth and final set was now necessary for the Blues to play. From a lead of 2-0 they now found themselves tied at 2-2. The fifth set of the game would only go up to 15 points which did not play out in the Blues favour. With the Mustangs on an obvious high, they were leading 8-2 very early on. Unfortunately, the Blues were unable to catch up and they lost the set 15-8. Western took the game 3-2 which meant the Blues placed fourth overall in the league.
