Box Score Second-year outside hitter Alex Barnes led all players with 15 points in helping the University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-21) victory on Friday night (Nov. 3) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
 
Barnes recoded 14 kills and one ace, while adding eight digs on the night. Third-year outside hitter Ken Dobson added 12 points on 12 kills and a game-high 11 digs, while sophomore Nicholas Trewern had 12 points on 11 kills and one block.
 
Second-year setter Jordan Figueira tallied 37 assists and 10 digs in the victory.
 
The first set went back and forth but a couple of kills from Dobson and a final point from Trewern put the Blues up 16-13 at the technical timeout. Barnes rallied U of T through rest of the set, capping it off with an ace to give the home team a 25-18 victory.
 
The second frame was much of the same, with the Blues holding a narrow lead throughout. Austin Valjas came up with back-to-back kills and Toronto took a 16-12 advantage into the technical timeout. Trent's Omer Suliman brought the set within two (21-19) with a kill and ace, but Toronto stood tall and a final kill from Dobson put the Blues up 2-0, 25-20.
 
Trent got out to a hot start in the third set, keeping pace with the Blues in the early goings. A big block from Trewern evened the set at 7-7 and the two teams traded points from there with Toronto holding a 16-14 lead at the break. Barnes went onto end the match with a final kill, 25-21, in Toronto's favour.
 
Suliman led the Excalibur with 13 points off of 11 kills, one ace and one block in the loss.
 
The Blues return to action next Saturday, November 11 as they travel to North Bay, Ont., to take on the Nipissing Lakers. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
 
GAME NOTES:
 
The Varsity Blues celebrated third-year players Austin Valjas and Andrew Kos in a special pre-game ceremony. The duo represented Canada at the 2017 U21 World Beach Volleyball Championships this past summer in China.
 
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