Action packed weekend for Lakers Volleyball
Lakers clip Hawks, Saints remain undefeatedThe Nipissing Lakers men’s volleyball team exorcized some demons last weekend, taking down their West division rivals the Humber Hawks, a team that ended their dream of OCAA gold only one year ago after the Lakers had built a two set lead.
What a difference a year makes. A great group of returning players, new recruits and a united direction has the Lakers playing some solid volleyball.
The Lakers took control of the match from the start, forcing Humber to take an early time-out as the Lakers built a 4-0 lead. That lead would stretch that to 7-0 before Humber managed a side out. The first set was never in doubt as the Lakers carried the momentum to a 25-19 victory. The second set was much the same as they Lakers served and blocked their way to a 25-17 win.
The only hiccup came in third set, when the Hawks took the set 25-21. The Lakers faced a tough task in putting away the resilient Hawks. However, the Lakers managed to overcome a slow start in the fourth set, going down 5-1. They worked hard and, when the dust settled,the Lakers beat the defending OCCA champions 25-23 to claim the 3-1 victory.
Left side Duncan Cairns led the Lakers offence collecting 11 kills, one ace, and a block while Adam Leblanc added 10 points and Scott Coulthard had eight. Third-year setter Taylor Bielby set a fantastic game, creating numerous one-on-one situations for his hitters.
On Friday, the Lakers defeated the St. Clair Saints 3-0 (25-10, 25-13, 25-12). Frankie Edgecombe and Andre Leblanc led the Lakers offence with 11 kills while Cairns added nine.
The Lakers remain undefeated at 4-0 and are currently ranked number one in the OCAA and fourth in Canada.
They’ll have another tough weekend ahead as they face two West Division opponents in Hamilton, battling the Mohawk Mountaineers and Redeemer Royals.Lady Lakers split weekend series
The Nipissing Lady Lakers split a pair of weekend matches, defeating the St. Clair Saints on Friday and dropping a close five set match to their long time rivals the Humber Hawks on Sunday.
It was another chapter in the on-going battle of the top two teams in the province as the Nipissing Lady Lakers started off well, winning the first two sets. The Lakers couldn’t close out their rivals, however, as the Hawks clawed their way back, winning the final three sets to claim the narrow 3-2 (22-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-15, 15-10) victory to close out the first chapter in the 2011-12 season.
The book is far from finished, however, as the Lady Lakers have been narrowing the gap and will continue to gain some experience as the season rolls along. The next meeting of the rivals is scheduled for January 22, 2012 at Nipissing University.
“It was a very entertaining match,” said head coach Marc LaRochelle. “I thought we played very focused and driven for good stretches; however, we need to do this for every point during the entire match if we are to reach our goals.”
“Humber made some adjustments after the second set, and as a team we did not commit to making the necessary changes in our game and it proved costly,” he added.
The Lady Lakers also lost the services of first-year outside hitter Victoria Taylor as she was injured during warm-up in a freak collision with a teammate and has a suspected fractured hand.
Middle player Megan Gilmore led the Lakers offence with 17 points followed by rookie right side hitter Brittany Ardron and Lucia DeMarco who added 16 and 14 points respectively.
On Friday, the Lady Lakers defeated the St. Clair Saints 3-0 (25-12, 25-23, 25-16). Gilmore once again led the offence with 13 points followed by Victoria Taylor who added 12 points.
The Lady Lakers are currently ranked second in the OCAA and 11th in Canada and have a 3-1 regular season record. The team will now travel to Hamilton for a pair of weekend games against Mohawk and St. Clair.