TORONTO — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women's volleyball team fell to the No. 10 nationally-ranked Western Mustangs in straight sets on Saturday afternoon, 25-20, 25-16, 25-15.

After being taken down by Western in similar fashion the previous night, TMU Head Coach Dustin Reid's squad came out fiery and looking for revenge.

They played aggressively, countering the Mustangs' strong service game and turning it into powerful attacks at the net.

Reid cited serve reception as a positive takeaway from the loss, praising his team's improvement in that aspect from the night prior:

"I was really quite proud of how we handled the serve receive today. We were a lot grittier, and we didn't give up as many direct points."

Outside hitter Darcie Buchanan benefited from the longer rallies, notching three kills in the first nine points of the match. The third-year star leads the team in kills per set this year with 2.33, and finished the match with a team high of eight.

"Darcie has really competed and battled well this weekend," said Reid, "She's hit aggressively and managed to keep the ball in play a lot, and found ways to score when there weren't really simple situations."

Despite Buchanan's hot start, the Mustangs rallied back with a four-point swing. An emphatic kill from Bold outside hitter Hannah Bellai managed to stop the bleeding, but Western had still managed to make things close.

Western built on that momentum and held a 24-19 lead near the end of the frame. A nearly 30-second long rally for set point provided some highlight digs and attacks for both teams, with TMU eventually snagging the point to make things 24-20. The effort wasn't quite enough, though, and the Mustangs ended up taking set one by five.

The second saw the Bold take an early lead thanks to some uncharacteristic mistakes from the Mustangs, who lead the OUA in hitting percentage this season at 22.4 per cent.

"We stayed close in the second set because they made a few serving and attacking errors that kind of artificially kept us close," explained Reid, "But when they decided they were going to put the ball in and force us to have to score, we struggled."

That new game plan from the Mustangs led to some mistakes from the Bold, allowing Western to pull away on a six-to-one run and control the set. 

Despite some impressive kills from Buchanan and middle Ayla Cross, the Mustangs were able to cruise into a second set victory, 25-16.

Reid made the decision to give his bench some game experience in the third. Outside hitter Marta Cerovic thrived in the newfound court time, smartly placing balls away from the hands of Western players to log three kills on the night.

"I'm happy to see Marta come in and get a chance," praised Reid, "she didn't get a tremendous amount of opportunity in the first half. But she came in today and was one of our better players in the third…I'm happy to see her embrace that opportunity."

Unfortunately for the Bold, Cerovic's strong outing wasn't enough to take down the Mustangs. Western took the third set by a score of 25-15, ending the match.

The result puts TMU's record at 6-6, and tenth in the OUA standings. The squad now have the week to rest before taking on their cross-city rivals, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, in a back-to-back weekend series on January 16 and 17.

"We love playing Toronto, and we've had a lot of good battles with them in recent years," said Reid, "we're both fighting for a spot to find our way into the playoffs. They're in a similar position as us, so they're going to be really meaningful matches…they're a really well organized team, and they don't beat themselves, so we're going to have to be a lot more consistent and a lot more prepared to control the ball than we were this weekend."

The first match between the two teams starts at 7 p.m. at the Goldring Centre in Toronto. Fans can tune into the game live at OUA.tv.