TORONTO — The No. 2 Ryerson Rams struggled to shake their post-break cobwebs in a 3-2 (21-25, 25-16, 25-16, 22-25, 16-18) loss to the No. 9 Western Mustangs on Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. 

Friday's match marked Ryerson's second loss of the season. 

Both Ryerson and Western fought a tough battle at the start of the first set, keeping the match squared until the six-point mark. Cailin Wark's (Georgetown, Ont.) powerful kill would swing momentum by way of the Rams who carried their four-point lead into the first technical timeout. Western tied the match at 20 a few points later and certainly stepped up their game, pulling out a 25-21 win over the Rams in the first set. 

After dishing nine errors in the first, the Rams would bounce back to take back-to-back 25-16 set wins to pull ahead 2-1 in the match. 

The Mustangs successfully attempted to inject some energy back into their lineup in the fourth. Western took an 11-8 lead that would quickly be relinquished to the calm and collected Rams, but the Mustangs continued to push and slowly edged ahead to take the fourth set 25-22 and tie the match at two.

Neither team managed to pull away with a significant lead in the fifth set, and the tight play continued until the final whistle. In the end, it was Western who would take down the No. 2 Rams and pull out an 18-16 set to claim a 3-2 match win. 

After a tough loss to Western, Rams head coach Dustin Reid says the adversity the Rams faced tonight is something the team will benefit from in the long run. 

"We didn't execute the way we wanted in the tight moments," said Reid. "If you don't have these [close] moments, it's hard to win in the future … I like to think it's going to be a positive for us in the bigger picture." 

Headlining Ryerson's efforts was Lauren Veltman (Brampton, Ont.), who totaled 17 kills through five sets against the Mustangs. Wark would finish the game with 13 kills and 10 digs, while Katelyn Grasman (Homoka, Ont.) tallied two solo blocks and seven kills in the match. Brett Hagarty (Aurora, Ont.) totalled eight kills on 26 attempts and led the team with a .269 hitting percentage. 

Veltman echoes similar sentiment to coach Reid, adding that the team is ready to move forward and is already looking ahead to their next match.

"We want to feel regretfulness and question what we could have done better or what could we have done to push a little harder," says Veltman. "But, it's something that helps us move into the next game. We have our next game tomorrow and this one is already out of our heads." 

The Rams will be back in action Saturday night against the Windsor Lancers. First serve flies at 6:00 p.m. on the Coca-Cola Court at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.