Photo by Kate Adams Marc Larochelle, sports information officer at Nipissing University, provided the following information: ———— The Nipissing University Lakers were perfect on the weekend completing a sweep of the visiting Lambton Lions and Saint C
Marc Larochelle, sports information officer at Nipissing University, provided the following information:
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The Nipissing University Lakers were perfect on the weekend completing a sweep of the visiting Lambton Lions and Saint Clair Saints in Ontario College Athletic Association volleyball action.
Friday, the Lady Lakers swept the Lions in three sets 25-18, 25-14, 25-23.
The Lady Lakers playing their season opener in front of a packed house and came out a little tentative but stabilized as the match progressed. Both setters distributed the ball well and rookie left side Brittany Partington played and intelligent match collecting 6 kills and two service aces. Megan Stacey led the offense with 18 kills and three service aces followed by Lynn Danis with seven kills, one stuff block and one service ace.
“This was a good team victory tonight,” said head coach John Jeffries. “When we pass the ball to our setter we are a difficult team to stop. We need to improve our passing consistency and work on our blocking for our next match.”
Stacey was the East Side Mario’s player of the game.
Saturday, the Lady Lakers executed its game plan to perfection and beat the Saints 3-0 (25-15, 25-9, 25-16). The Lady Lakers set the tone early with some solid passing from Jenna Irwin that enabled setter Michelle Irwin to distribute the ball at speed and creating some difficulties for the Saints defence.
“I thought Michelle Irwin played her best match to date,” said Jeffries. “This was the total team effort that we expect every game. While we still have a few things to work on I thought we played a very solid match.”
Megan Stacey led the offense with 19 kills, three stuff blocks and three aces, while Kelly Ramakko added 2 kills and two service aces. Irwin was named the East Side Mario’s player of the game.
On the men’s side the Lakers went down two sets early in the match but showed some determination and took the final three to beat the Saints 3-2 (20-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-10). Unforced errors and missed serves proved costly in the first two sets for the Lakers.
“Fortunately we were able to find a way to build off the crowd and some big offensive points to turn the momentum in our favour,” said head coach Duane Culin. “At this point in the season, we know we won’t play our best ball every match. We will work hard as a team to learn from this experience and get better as the season progresses.”
Seamus Strutt provided 22 kills, one stuff block and one ace to led the offense while Eric Yung added 20 kills, two stuff blocks and one ace. Strutt was the East Side Mario’s player of the game.
The Lakers are now 3-0 on the season and sit in first place in the Central-West division.
The Laker teams will be back in action as they host the annual Lakers Invitational tournament at the Robert J Surtees Athletic Centre Nov. 12-13.
