TORONTO – A night after head coach Niko Rukavina called the remainder of the season “crunch time”, the TMU Bold men’s volleyball team responded with a dramatic comeback win over the Nipissing Lakers Saturday night. The win pairs with a loss on Friday evening that hurt the Bold’s (8-11) playoff chances. The Bold sit 9th in the OUA, with six games remaining.
It was a slow start for the Bold as they found themselves behind early in the first set, a trend that began in last night’s contest where they did not hold a multi-point lead in any set. The Bold’s deficit in the first was the result of strong Nipissing net play, in combination with several TMU service and attack errors.
A pair of Jacob Walker kills would bring the Bold to within three at 20-17, temporarily inspiring a Bold comeback. However, coming out of a timeout, the Bold momentum would stall as the Lakers captured a 25-20 set win.
“We’re a younger team and we need to learn to play from behind a little bit,” said Rukavina.
An Alex King kill early in the second kick-started a more competitive set after the Bold had dropped the first four of the weekend doubleheader. King would continue his strong form in a run of dominance that saw a service ace and another kill. A Bobby Tang service would give the Bold a temporary lead in the set before a Jacob Walker service game helped establish a multi-point lead.
However, Nipissing would quickly erase the deficit before claiming a 25-23 set victory. It was the result of five Bold attacking errors, as well as three service errors gifting the Lakers eight points. Furthermore the Bold managed to only hit .217 through the first two sets, a continuation of their struggles from the previous night.
“(We were telling ourselves) to just stay positive and good things will come,” said Walker of the team’s early struggles.
The service errors would continue with the Bold’s first serve of the third set but the Bold would quickly establish a 6-3 set lead, perhaps their best start to a set throughout the weekend series. The momentum would continue following a Nipissing timeout, and several Lakers service errors as the Bold built a 16-9 lead. A Ben Davey block would further extend the Bold lead as well as providing a boost to the newly confident Bold. They would carry this confidence to a 25-13 set win, finished by a Walker kill, a dramatic turnaround from the previous sets this weekend.
“I thought we were playing the way we should be playing, even in the first two sets,” said Rukavina. “I kept telling the guys just keep powering through, it’s going to come.”
The Bold would again quickly establish a lead in the fourth set at 7-3. In a reversal of roles, the Bold began to hit at a high percentage and the Lakers began making the same mistakes that had plagued the Bold in the first two sets. The TMU lead would swell to 16-11, and saw the same core of players remain on the floor virtually the entire time. Second year Zack Morden was one of the seven, and he had a major impact on the scoreline throughout the fourth set. Morden would finish with five kills on the night, and helped the Bold secure a tie breaking fifth set as they grabbed the fourth with a 25-17 victory.
The fifth set opened as the third and fourth had, with the Bold establishing an early lead. Nipissing would quickly equalize the set at five, reducing the game to a race to ten points. When the squads switched sides the Bold held a slight 8-6 lead after a Taylor Wenzel kill. The pressure, which had rested squarely on the Bold (who needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive), moved towards the Lakers, desperate to avoid a collapse.
The Lakers would tie things at 11 as the contest entered its final stages. Walker would make up for a misplayed serve that tied the set, by scoring a pivotal kill. The Bold would carry a 14-12 lead going into his service game, giving them two chances to secure the victory. Nipissing would survive the first opportunity, before Walker would secure the game-clinching kill, finishing an incredible comeback.
“Not going to lie, this is probably the proudest moment I’ve had with this team this year,” said Rukavina. “These are the moments we’re going to look back on the season and be proud of.”
The Bold are back in action next Friday in Waterloo, taking on the Warriors.
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