Golden weekend for Lady Lakers

The Lady Lakers volleyball team poses after winning a Toronto area tournament. Photo submitted.

TORONTO, ON – The Nipissing University Lady Lakers volleyball team captured gold at the Humber Cup defeating the Algonquin College Thunder 2-0 (25-15, 25-19) in the finals.

The tournament featured all 8 women’s teams that appeared at the 2005-06 OCAA championships as well as Cambrian and Loyalist. The tournament structure pitted West/Central-West division teams against East/Central-East teams. Only the top two teams from each division advanced to the semi-finals.

“The tournament structure presented an interesting challenge in itself,” said head coach Marc LaRochelle.

“We had a very strong pool with Humber, Mohawk, Fanshawe, and Georgian. It was important for us to be focused every match as points for and against could play a major part in determining the top two.”

The Lakers finished first in pool play by defeating Cambrian 2-0 (25-22, 25-20), Algonquin 2-0 (25-21, 25-14), Seneca 2-0 (25-18, 25-20), Durham 2-0 (25-16, 25-17) and split with Loyalist 15-25, 25-14.

The Lakers would advance to the Cup final by defeating Humber College 2-0 (25-17, 25-17). “Humber is always a tough match. We have had some classic battles over the last few years and our players wanted to put in a good performance and they did,” added LaRochelle

“Overall I was very happy with our effort this weekend. We played a very good team game. We maintained a balanced level of intensity and focus and our point for point mentality was solid which was crucial in a tournament structured in this fashion."

Megan Stacey was named the tournament Most Valuable Player and Lynn Danis was named a tournament All Star.

The Lady Lakers will travel to Sudbury next weekend to play the Cambrian Invitational Tournament.

Laker Men miss playoff round

In men’s action the Lakers posted some disappointing results and finished the tournament with four points. In pool play the Lakers were defeated by Seneca 2-0 (24-26, 16-25), Algonquin 2-0 (21-25, 22-25), while defeating Durham 2-0 (30-28, 25-20) and splitting match with Loyalist (22-25, 27-25) and Cambrian (16-25, 25-21). The Lakers did not advance to the playoffs.

The Lakers will be looking to get back on track as they host the annual Lakers Volleyball Classic this weekend at the Robert J Surtees Centre.