Playing in their home gym, the Porter Creek Rams cruised to a three sets to none victory over the Vanier Crusaders, defeating their opponents 25-10, 25-12 and 25-11. Despite the disparity in score, the Crusaders’ fought until the final point.

In the first set the Rams jumped out to an early 5-0 lead thanks in large part to their start from the serving line, however, the Crusaders managed to win the ball back and go on a run of their own, lead by a powerful serving game.

This would be as close as the first set got, as the Rams pulled away with another service run by Caelon Workman.

Strong serving coupled with gritty back-row defense and strong net play proved to be to much for the Crusaders as they fell behind 20-8, ultimately losing the set 25-10.

Despite the loss Crusaders head coach Jane Londero says the team is going to keep working hard to make the proper adjustments for the next time the two teams meet.

“It wasn’t our best game. We had a few problems with our serve and passing the ball up,” said Londero. “Some of their servers had five or six in a row and that really hurt us. We seemed intimidated, but we talked about that after the game. We can play better than this.”

The second set started similar to the first, with the Rams executing on serve receive and following it up with strong serves of their own. According to Rams head coach Natasha Bilodeau, these are two areas of the game her team puts a great deal of focus on in practice.

“I think the team performed well today, we just tried to stick with it and play our game,” said Bilodeau. “We spend a lot time working on serving and strategic serving, as well as serve receive. They did do really well.”

All that focus showed as the Rams took the second set 25-12, to take a commanding two sets to none lead.

The Rams showed no signs of letting up in the third set as they pulled out to a quick 8-3 lead, by playing stellar defense lead by libero, and player of the game, Emiko Jones Kinuyeteramura.

“We are getting used to a new system, so we were meshing a little bit better,” said Kinuyeteramura.

“We were really positive, we were swinging, and covering our new positions well, we did a good job of that.

The Rams extended their advantage to 23-10 by minimizing their mistakes and continuing their strong service game, ultimately taking the third set 25-10.

Even in victory the Rams are still looking to improve, Kinuyetermura said the energy of game felt flat at times. Bilodeau also wants to see more energy out of her team.