VETERANS HEAD OFF INTO SUNSET

The Nipissing Lakers women's volleyball team turned the page on another season Saturday, but not without saying goodbye to a handful of players who helped author the most recent chapters of the team's OCAA success.

Christina Crozier, Laura Hudson, Stefanie Hancock and Trichelle Caron, who have all been a part of the Lakers' last four OCAA medal-winning squads, capped off their careers in blue, green and white Saturday afternoon by downing the Mount Allison Mounties 3-1 (25-9, 19-25, 25-18, 25-20) in the seventh-place match at the 2009 CCAA Women's Volleyball National Championship.

In her final game on home court, Hancock pounded out 16 kills and two blocks while Hudson had 12 kills and block and an ace against the Atlantic Canada conference champions from Sackville, N. B. Chandra Massey added 14 points of total offence and Ashley Hummel had a team-high 10 digs for the Lakers.

The win was an emotional end for Hudson and Crozier, who have spent half a decade playing and practising in the R. J. Surtees Athletic Centre.

I really don't think we could have ended our careers on a higher note," Hudson said. We got to play in nationals, we got to play at nationals at home and we got to finish our last game in front of all our friends and family. So I don't think we could have asked for a better ending. And seventh in the country? Hell yeah, we'll take that."

It didn't seem that the Lakers would have to battle their emotions on the court Saturday as they came out on a scorching 9-3 run before rookie Alexandra Burton served out the final nine points of the opening game.

The strong start, however, belied the fact that before the game the waterworks had already started. Hudson said one of the coaches broke down in tears before we all started . . . and, oh God, it wasn't pretty."
But the players were able to suppress their emotions until after the match, at which point, Crozier, whose on-court expression usually portrays an aura of calm collectedness, broke down in tears with friends and family surrounding her.
I think we knew that we had to contain our emotions until the end and I think everyone did a good job of it, especially the veterans," she said.
Besides, they will have plenty of time to look back on their accomplishments in the years to come. The list is pretty extensive.

Since Crozier and Hudson made their Lakers debut in the 2004-05 season, followed by Hancock and Caron in 2005-06, the Lakers have compiled a 54-8 record, have advanced to the provincial finals each year, including an OCAA championship in 2006-07, and finishing seventh twice (2007, 2009) at nationals.
Every athlete brings us something special and those girls kind of started our run (at provincials)," head coach Marc LaRochelle said. Part of our success certainly is attributed to them and once you develop a successful program, people want to join it.
There the ones that started it and it's certainly nice that they can finish up on a high note, that's for sure."

Hudson, however, was quick to note that there have been several key contributors to the Lakers' success aside from this year's graduates.
We've been lucky too, we've played with some great, great individuals," said Hudson, who also praised the efforts of LaRochelle and assistants Ben Hong and Tyler Landry. All my five years, we've had amazing teammates, we've had great teams and we've been really close. We've been lucky to have all been really close on every team, so I'll definitely remember all those people."

As for achievements, both Crozier and Hudson said they'll cherish the provincial gold medal in 2007 the most. But they'll also look back fondly at the laughs shared on the road, trips abroad for tournaments and ribbing LaRochelle about how he grooms his hair.

There's so many things over the years, so many little anecdotal stories about things that have happened," Crozier said.
Every road trip there's always something that happened that we laugh about, a hilarious moment. It's just been great."