While they all count the same, It’s often said in sports, ‘not all wins are created equal.’
Saturday night was a prime example of that for the York University Lions men’s volleyball team. Not only did they pick up their first win of the season – they picked up their first win of the season in five sets… against the defending OUA champions… giving head coach Jordan Taylor his first OUA win.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Lions showed they were in it to win it early against the formidable Marauders, taking an 8-5 lead in the opening set. After McMaster rallied to take a 16-13 lead, and eventually extended it to 20-17 the Lions roared back to tie it at 21 on a kill from Jordan Gazzola. They then scored four of the next five points – punctuated by a Dennis Cota kill, and threw the opening punch, 25-22, to go up 1-0.
The second set was just as evenly-matched. After the Marauders took an 11-8 lead, York scored the next three points to even things up. McMaster scored the next point and never trailed again in the set, taking it by a 25-20 count to tie the match 1-1.
The third set was all Lions. They came out like gangbusters in the middle set, scoring eight of the first nine points to take a commanding 8-1 lead. While McMaster slowly creeped its way back into things at 11-7, the Lions responded again, allowing just five points the remainder of the set en route to a convincing 25-12 third-set victory.
However, in a strange reversal of fortune, McMaster replied to the Lions dominant third set with one of its own in the fourth. They took a 14-4 lead in the fourth, and, as fate would have it, went onto take the fourth set by the same score York took the third, 25-12, to send the match to a decisive fifth set.
The Lions took a 2-0 lead in the fifth, before McMaster scored the next two to tie. York then took a 5-2 lead before the visitors reeled off five of six to grab a 7-6 lead. Out of a timeout, York tied the set at 7, then 8, before going up 9-8. With York down 12-11, Alex Ko reeled off three straight offensive points for the Lions, including a match-winning ace to seal a 15-13 fifth-set win and a 3-2 triumph, York’s first ‘W’ under its new head coach.
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Lions will look to build off what could be a season-defining victory when they travel to Western to battle the Mustangs in a pair of games next weekend. The back-to-back set begins Friday night at 8:00 pm from London.