GUELPH, Ont. - From start to finish Friday night at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, the No. 9-nationally ranked Gryphons Men's Volleyball team showed from start to finish why they were put in to the U SPORTS Top 10 this past week. Using constant pressure on offence, and a scrappy defence, the Gryphons improved to 5-0 on the season defeating the Ryerson Rams in straight sets (25-13, 25-22, 25-21).
From the beginning of the first set, all the way up until the final rally of the match, the Gryphons did a good job of spreading their offence around. Leading the team in kills Friday night was Jonathan Pickett with ten, but not far behind him were teammates Zarko Ubiparip and Matthew Baxter who both finished with eight each. Meanwhile, on defence, the Gryphons had six digs from current OUA Male Athlete of the Week, Gideon Dresser, while getting five from Ben Kissack and four more from Jakson Paterson.
After the two teams went back and forth exchanging points to start the match, the Gryphons began to assert their dominance and pull away from the visitors. Although their early lead was trimmed to 10-7, the Gryphons took over from that point, going on to score 15 of the next 21 points as they took a 1-0 lead with a 25-13 victory.
In the second set, there wasn't quite as much separation throughout. Both teams were able to stay within a point or two for the first half of the set, but with Guelph leading 14-12 they slowly began to pull away. From 17-15 to 19-16 to 24-21 and finally 25-22, the Gryphons managed to maintain their breathing room, while securing a two sets to none advantage.
Looking to put the match away in the third set, Guelph was able to establish an early 6-1 lead. However, Ryerson was able to fight back. The Rams got the game tied 12-12, and then even took a 21-20 lead late in the set. Down by a point though, the Gryphons began to soar. Winning five straight rallies, which was capped off by a Arjun Selhi service ace, which bounced off the net before hitting the floor, Guelph found themselves third set victors as well as match victors.
"We are playing with a lot of confidence right now," said Gryphon's head coach
Cal Wigston. "Ryerson is a very good team, so to be able to win this game in three sets is really cool. I'm really happy with the way we're playing right now."
With the three-set victory, the Gryphons are now a perfect 9-0 in sets played on their home court, while improving to 3-0 in matches at the GGAC.
"We've got great fans as you could see there were many people in the stands tonight," said Wigston. "Our Assistant Coach, Peter Hrkal said at the beginning of the year to the guys to defend home court. When you can win at home, it makes life tough for other teams to come in here and play."
Now 5-0 to start the season, the Gryphons will be back at home again next weekend. On November 16th, Guelph will resume their OUA regular season schedule with a home match against the Western Mustangs. That game is scheduled for 8:00pm at the GGAC.
