Lady Lakers topple top ranked Mountaineers

HAMILTON – The Nipissing Lady Lakers put together an impressive come from behind victory to hand the number ranked Mohawk Mountaineers their first loss of the season with a 3-2 (25-22, 18-25, 25-27, 25-21, 15-11) victory.

“I was very proud of the girls’ performance today,” said head coach Marc LaRochelle. “It was a very gritty determined team effort in the face of injury, illness and adversity.”

The Lady Lakers started the match with two players scratched from the line-up due to injury and soon found themselves having to use some creative line-up adjustments as they stormed out to a 10-2 first set lead only to have starting middle blocker Laura Hudson landing on the opponents foot after a block and having to leave the game for repairs.

“That was definitely a scary moment. We are very thin in the middle right now,” said LaRochelle. The Lady Lakers Brittany Widlak has been side-lined since early November while Chandra Massey the other starting middle played a strong match despite recovering from the flu.

“I really give the team a lot of credit for staying focused. Stefanie Hancock did a great job of playing out of position until Laura returned while Christina Crozier made some very good setting decisions.”

Hudson was able to return to play and the Lady Lakers claimed the first set 25-22. In the second set the play was back and forth but a late 7 point run allowed the Mountaineers to claim the set 25-18. The third set had many lead changes throughout however the Lady Lakers missed several opportunities to close it out and allowed Mohawk to score three points in a row to edge the Lakers 27-25.

“After the third set we talked about the difference between swinging not to make mistakes and swinging to win. I think we did a much better job of putting the ball away in the final two sets.” added LaRochelle.

The Lakers then went on to capture the fourth set 25-21 and captured the match with a 15-11 fifth set victory.

“Our three veterans did a very good of providing stability and leadership on the floor and our rookies were outstanding.” Marianna Strutt was inserted on the left side after Stephanie Stubbert suffered from muscle soreness. “Stephanie (Stubbert) was just too sore to perform the way she usually does and Marianna stepped in and did a fantastic job. She was able to score some big points for us in the clutch and her volleyball sense on defense is the best I have seen in a long time.”

Hancock and Hudson led the Lady Lakers offense with 15 points each while Strutt added 10 and Jessica Bigelow had eight. Ashley Hummel the Lakers Libero added 16 digs along with some solid serve receive passing especially in the final two sets.

Men Swept by Mohawk

On the men’s side the Lakers didn’t fair out as well as Mohawk dominated the match with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-16) sweep.

The Lakers couldn’t overcome a slow start and the fired up Mohawk team didn’t let up. The Lakers managed only 18 offensive points in the match and didn’t register a single block.

Eric Yung and Seamus Strutt led the Lakers offense with 6 kills and one ace each.

“Knowing it was a big match the team did not step up to the challenge and did not execute in every aspect of the game,” said fifth year left side hitter Eric Yung.

“Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to the team as we only have three weeks leading up to provincials. We know we are a much better team then that and we can compete with the best; we just have to practice and play like it.”

The Lakers will be back in action on Thursday as the battle of the Bay part 2 will take place against cross campus rivals the Canadore Panthers. The women will take to the court at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 8 p.m. at the Education Centre Gymnasium.

Submitted to BayToday.ca