TORONTO — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's volleyball team fell against the York University Lions 3-0 in their home opener.

The Bold hosted their Block Party with the Mattamy Athletic Centre Court packed with fans.

The first set gave the crowd a new look at the Bold's team this year. Throughout the pre-season, the team has been looking at building chemistry between the returning players and eight new players. The first set showed the budding camaraderie when it came to supporting the winning and losing points throughout the set.

The first big play came from Riley Donovan, who dumped it over the net in effortless fashion, finding the spot on the Lions' side that they could not reach in time.

In his first game as a member of the Bold, transfer Gavin Elzinga displayed his prior volleyball experience in the first set with some strong play. One particularly impressive play involved the fourth-year opposite hitter rising up to strike the ball and, in the final moments, chipping it over his opponents and claiming the point. Elzinga led his teammates with nine kills in the game, followed by Donovan who had seven.

The first set ended with the Bold down, 25-20.

Looking to regroup, the Bold came back out in the second set, but couldn't find a way to take control.

Despite early struggles, Ross Buchanan found his fire late in the set with three consecutive plays resulting in three-straight points for TMU. With the match at 24-17, Buchanan didn't want to see the set end. First, he got a kill, then followed with two blocks.

Despite his efforts, the Bold fell in the same fashion as the first set, 25-20.

The third set saw the Bold take the lead early. With several attacking and service errors from the Lions, the Bold had a clearer path this time around. In addition, Ethan Lau — acting libero in place of Tony Tanouchev, who missed the match due to injury — hit his stride in the set.

"Ethan's done a really good job being a first-year," said head coach Niko Rukavina. "He's a left-side that's moved to libero and he's handled it really well. We knew there were going to be some nerves and issues to start, but he did a really good job for today and I'm excited for just how much he can get out of the libero position."

The Bold's lead diminished towards the end of the set, and York took the frame, 25-23.

This was the first matchup of the season for the Bold and they can take some lessons into tomorrow's rematch against the Lions. 

"We saw what they had and we're going to adjust a little bit," said Rukavina. "A lot of it was on our side and we needed to make some adjustments on how to defend them because they attacked pretty well and they were going over our block a little bit. We'll focus a little bit on our back defence"

The Bold will once again face the York Lions on Friday Oct. 24. Students can attend the game for free with their OneCards.