Lakers get past Shield

SUDBURY - The Nipissing University men’s volleyball program kicked off the 2007-2008 season by traveling to Sudbury for an exhibition game against Cambrian College. The Lakers were taking the court for the first time this season while the Golden Shield participated in an early bird tournament hosted by Mohawk College.

The rust was evident from the Lakers in game one, and despite leading much of the way they dropped a close set 31-29. They rebounded to take the second game 25-21 and never looked back, taking games three and four 25-16, 25-16.

“We were interested to see how we would match up being our first game of the season,” said head coach Grant Ross.

“We have talked about being aggressive with our block and the guys did a great job at the net. Our blocking was outstanding tonight.”

In game one the Lakers didn’t serve particularly well but as the match went on the team definitely improved in that regard.

“We have a number of guys like Seamus Strutt, Matt Brady, Drew Pahapill, and Conrad Bedard who are solid jump servers and can put a lot of pressure on passers.”

“We were also pleased with good secondary contributions from a number of players, which really showed the depth of our team. Second year left side Zach Halwachs came off the bench and gave us some scoring and defense, and middle Matt Rice did not look out of place in his debut. We are definitely bigger than last year, and have added some depth through the middle blocker position which can only help us throughout the year”

The Lakers will look to build on this success with another week of practice before traveling to Windsor on Friday to begin the regular season versus the St Clair Saints.

“We need to keep improving our passing and work on our defensive positioning, and we will look to add to our offense with a few different things.” added Ross.

The Lakers will be home on the 10th of November when they host Lakers Volleyball Classic Invitational tournament at the Robert J Surtees Athletics Centre.

Submitted to BayToday.ca