TORONTO – The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball team were shut out for a second-straight match on Saturday in a 3-0 defeat to the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues.
Riley Donivan paced the Bold with seven kills while UofT’s Jayden Talsma and Iannis Toma blitzed the floor for nine and eight kills respectively to close out the Bold’s fall semester.
Enduring a sweep at the hands of their city rivals on Friday, the Bold once again struggled to stay within striking distance and limit the Varsity Blues’ attacking runs in their 22-25, 19-25, 14-25 loss on Saturday.
The visitors watched as their tenacious 10-5 lead got gobbled up by U of T’s 6-0 run to flip the match’s early momentum in the first set. The Bold rallied back, staying in limbo with the home side before a pair of attacking errors secured the Varsity Blues a narrow 25-22 victory to take a 1-0 lead.
Frustrating the Bold defense for 14 kills in Friday’s action, U of T’s Hunter Arulpragasm found his stride in the second set, slamming down consecutive service aces to cap off an 11-4 run and propel the Varsity Blues to an eventual 25-19 set win.
The Varsity Blues were able to benefit from another prolonged run of theirs in the third set, knocking down five-straight points to pull ahead of the Bold and take a commanding 10-4 lead.
Staring down the prospect of their dropping their sixth-consecutive set, TMU struggled to match U of T’s pace and string together an attacking run of their own to keep their comeback hopes alive in Saturday’s third set.
Four points was the closest the Bold would get to upheaving U of T’s momentum before ultimately losing the set 25-14.
The two losses drop the Bold back to .500 on the season and place them sixth in the OUA standings heading into the holiday break.
The blue and gold will resume their season on the road when they take on the Western Mustangs on Jan. 10. Watch the contest on OUA.tv.