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The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team fell 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 26-24, 21-25, 9-15) to the Ryerson Rams on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 9) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
 
With the loss, the Blues drop to 1-4 and remain in ninth place in the OUA standings, while Ryerson improved to 4-2 and is now tied for third with the Western Mustangs.
 
Fifth-year left side hitter Dave Merritt of Windsor, Ont., led the Blues with 15 kills, eight digs and two aces, while fourth-year middle Nate Virgo added 12 kills, five digs and four blocks.
 
Kyle Fick and Jake Dysselhof added 10 and 11 kills, respectively, with Michael Denton notching 48 assits and a team-high 12 digs in the loss.
 
The Blues got out to a good start with some early work from Virgo and a couple of Dysselhof kills led to an 8-3 run for U of T. A big kill from Merritt gave Toronto a 16-9 lead at the technical timeout. The Rams rallied, led by a couple of points from second-year outside hitter Lucas Coleman, and the two teams traded points from there. All tied up at 23-23, a couple of U of T errors sealed the 9-4 run and first set Ryerson win, 25-23.
 
U of T came out with a vengeance in the second set and built an early 8-3 lead. A Denton block and Merritt tip gave the Blues a 12-6 advantage, but the Rams started to show life after a Brandon Jordan kill ended a long rally to make it 14-8. The Blues were up 16-11 at the technical timeout. Ryerson continued their streak and two kills from Coleman and Robert Wojcik evened the score at 18-18. The Blues pulled away with some great blocks and took the second set 25-20.
 
The third set went back-and-forth, with the score tying eight times before a U of T attacking error gave the Rams a 16-13 lead at the technical timeout. The Blues came back and took a 22-21 lead thanks to back-to-back kills from Dysselhof. Two amazing diving digs from Kyle Fick gave the Blues a 23-22 lead, and two big kills from Merritt sealed the third-set win 26-24.
 
Toronto played an early game of catch-up with a 6-1 run, highlighted by a Zia Karim ace and Dysselhof kill, to take an 11-9 lead in the fourth set. The two teams went back and forth and Ryerson held a narrow 16-15 lead at the break. Karim put the Blues back in the lead with two kills and an ace, but the Rams forced the fifth set with an 8-2 run, capped off with a block from Coleman and Marc Reardon to win 25-21.
 
A couple of big blocks from Reardon gave the Rams an 8-5 lead at the fifth set technical timeout. The Blues attempted to rally, but were unable to complete the comeback in the 15-9 loss.
 
Ryerson was led by Robert Wojcik's 20 kills, with Coleman notching 12 kills and Jordan tallying 10 kills in the win.
 
The Varsity Blues return to the court next Saturday, November 15 as they travel to North Bay, Ont., to take on the Nipissing Lakers. Game time is set for 2 p.m.

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