Lakers defend volleyball titles

The Nipissing Lakers volleyball teams defended their respective tournament titles in Ontario Colleges Athletic Association weekend action.

On the men’s side the Lakers captured the 2007 Lakers Volleyball Classic with a 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-10) victory over the Georgian College Grizzlies.

The Lakers didn’t drop a set the entire tournament and arrived to the finals by sweeping Canadore, Georgian, and La Cite in pool play. In the semi-final the Lakers defeated the Cambrian Golden Shield 2-0 (25-20, 25-26) to secure a place in the finals.

“We came into this weekend with certain expectations,” said assistant coach Travis Spiess. “We met all of these and did so without dropping a set. A key component to this weekend was to develop our depth further by providing more court time for our younger players. All around it was good team effort.”

Lady Lakers Golden

On the women’s side the Lady Lakers captured gold at the Cambrian Invitational tournament by defeating the host Shield 2-1 (22-25, 25-23, 15-12).

The Lady Lakers were perfect in round robin play and arrived to the finals by sweeping Boreal, Cambrian and Canadore.

“We played some solid volleyball during pool play,” said head coach Marc LaRochelle. “We were able to mix and match different line-ups without losing any momentum offensively.”

“In the finals we struggled to get any rhythm. Our left sides didn’t pass well and we made too many unforced errors.

“Our left side players will need to step it up if we are to compete against the elite teams in the OCAA.” added LaRochelle.

The Lakers will be busy during the next few weeks as they will play important divisional matches. The Lakers will be on the road against Sheridan and Humber this weekend while the Lakers home opener against Niagara and Mohawk is schedule for November 24 & 25 at 12:00 p.m.

Submitted to BayToday.ca