TORONTO - The Ryerson Rams men's volleyball team wrapped up their pre-season campaign with a 4-1 record earlier this month, and are set to play their home opener this Saturday, October 26th at Coca-Cola Court against the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Looking back on past seasons, the Ryerson men's volleyball program has been the image of consistency, having now qualified for the OUA playoffs for seven straight seasons, and have tallied a 12-6 regular-season record for three years in a row. 

Last year's team, however, was one of the youngest teams the program has ever seen, including seven first-year players and seven more second-year players. Those young core pieces returning this year will be extremely valuable for team success. 

Rams head coach Matt Harris spoke on the youthful squad saying, "I think the young guys got a lot of experience last year, whether it was young guys having starting roles or coming off the bench providing energy, they're both coming into this year ready to take on a bigger role." 

One of those returning young players will be U SPORTS Rookie of the Year and OUA East Player of the Year, Xander Ketrzynski, who will be going into his second year as a Ram. Having spent the summer playing volleyball with the U21 Canadian national team, Ketrzynski will be looked upon to build on what was a monstrous rookie season. 

"I'm pretty excited that he spent the whole summer playing volleyball, he can only get better […] The key with a guy like him is to keep him focused on things he needs to improve on and just making sure that we're helping him improve those things," said Harris.  

Ketrzynski also feels confident about his team this season, saying, "I think our team is looking really strong. We got a few really good recruits. We were all in our first and second years last year so we weren't as experienced as some of the other teams, but I think now that we have more of an older presence in our team, it'll certainly help us out a lot." 

Another key piece going into the season will be third-year middle-blocker Navreet Suhan, who was placed on OUA's All-Rookie Team in his first year and OUA's Second All-Star Team last season. Suhan also spent two months training with the U21 national team that Ketrzynski played on over the summer, and "gained some valuable experience" according to coach Harris. "He also came away from that experience highly motivated to get back in the gym and work at some of the things he needs to get better at. Nav's going to have a big role in the team this year on and off the court and was nominated our team captain." Harris added.

Suhan will look to build on his progression after leading the team in blocks and being second-highest in kills on the team last season.  

Another exciting component looking into this season will be the new recruits. Alex King (Ottawa, Ont.), a 6-7 middle, and Derek Webster (Ottawa, Ont.), a 6-6 outside hitter are a pair of first-year recruits that were teammates on both the Ottawa Mavericks and Team Ontario. Another freshman recruit is Trent Ketrzynski (Toronto), younger brother of Xander Ketrzynski, who will be playing the setter position at 6-6. 

Trent Ketrzynski commented on his decision to choose Ryerson, saying "He (Xander) helped me make my decision and showed me around a bunch of times. But at the end of the day, I would have came here regardless." 

When asked about his expectations of the new recruits, head coach Harris said: "We're expecting big things out of all three of our younger guys [...] and I'm pretty confident that when they get an opportunity to play, all three of them will excel on the court." 

The most recent recruit of this season is Taryq Sani (Scarborough, Ont.), who is a high-flying outside hitter in his fourth year of eligibility, playing for the University of Alberta Golden Bears last season. Sani was on CW's Second All-Star Team this past season and helped the Golden Bears to a fourth-place finish at the U SPORTS national championship. Taryq was the player of the game in the quarter-final win where he had a monstrous 18 kills, two more than the rest of his team combined. He also has experience representing Canada at the U19 level in beach volleyball and playing in the U21 NORCECA continental championship and U21 World Championship. 

Harris spoke highly of Sani's U SPORTS experience and athleticism that will certainly be considered a boost in this young group, adding, "He's really athletic, really physical, he's a good teammate, he enjoys playing hard for his team and we're excited to get him on the court." 

Having never clinched an OUA title in program history, despite being on the brink of those accomplishments for so many years, this year's squad have their sights set on just that. 

Xander Ketrzynski spoke about the team's goals, saying, "As a team, we established that we would like to receive a high ranking at provincials and then we would obviously all love to go to nationals."

Harris also discussed similar goals saying, "We definitely want to put ourselves in a scenario where we're playing for an OUA Championship.[...] There's three berths this year to go to nationals and that's what we're training for. We're training to be in a meaningful match by the end of the year." 

The Rams open their OUA season this Saturday against the Varsity Blues, who have shown to be tough competition in the past. "UofT is a veteran team. They have a lot of older players that have played a lot throughout their careers. [...] They understand it's the season opener, they understand we're at home, they know what our crowd's going to be like and they're going to come in and be aggressive and see how we're going to handle that. I like our chances if that happens," Harris closed off with. 

The Rams will play the Blues at 4 p.m. this Saturday and will be hosting their annual OVA Day, so a packed crowd is expected. The game will be available at OUA.tv