Bold bested by Warriors in OUA quarter-final

Box Score WATERLOO, Ont. — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women’s volleyball team had their season come to an end of Saturday afternoon, falling 3-1 (23-25, 27-25, 18-25, 18-25) to the Waterloo Warriors at the Carl Totzke Court.

The OUA’s number-three seed proved to be too much handle for the Bold, as the Warriors rallied off the third and fourth set to ultimately prevail and punch their ticket to next Saturday’s Quigley Cup semifinal. 

Julie Moore led TMU with 14 kills in her final game with the program. The contest was the final outing for Moore, Katelyn Grasman, Jyoti Ruparell, Alicia Lam and Bethany Smith, as the five graduates bid farewell to their OUA careers.

After a narrow opening set loss, the Bold got on the board in the second. TMU was trailing by as many as eight — 22-13 — they rallied off eight of the next nine points to close the deficit to just two. The Warriors was still able to get to set point and took a 24-21 lead, but from there, the Bold took over. Six of the next seven points went the visitors way, book-ended by a Ruparell service ace to notch the second frame.

But TMU was never really able to muster momentum after the set win. Waterloo controlled both the third and fourth sets throughout, and ultimately rolled to the win. Sarah Glynn, Jennifer Zhu and Avery Kelly all notched double-digit kills with 14, 14 and 12, respectively. The Warriors finished off the Bold in the fourth set by recording 18 kills and only two errors, registering a .376 hitting percentage.

Waterloo will now move on to next Saturday’s OUA quarter-final, while this comes as the end of the road for TMU. It was a rebound season for the Bold, after improving on a 3-10 campaign a year ago. TMU competed in the program’s first postseason game since Feb. 29, 2020, putting wraps on a season which featured a pair of highlight wins over McMaster.

As the group of five graduates move on, the attention now shifts to next season. The team’s roster figures to largely be built around the likes of Scarlett Gingera, Ashley Ditchfield, Sarah Zonneveld and Mary Rioflorido, as the Bold look to continue to build and make a run back to the postseason in 2023-24.