WELLAND, Ont. – The only loss of the weekend for the Durham College women's volleyball team at the Niagara Invitational came in the tournament final to the Brock Badgers.
Against their OUA opponents from St. Catharines, the Lords opened with a 25-22 first set win before falling in the next three sets 25-19, 25-21 and 25-15.
"We're still looking at how we can best utilize all the talent and options we have on the team, but overall I'm extremely pleased with how this weekend," said head coach
Tony Clarke. "We've had the chance to play such a variety of opponents this preseason and feel we're close to finally figuring out what will work best to make us successful. At any given moment, we have different players we can put into the match to give us the edge over our opponent and now that we've seen all of those options, as a coaching staff we're happy with the direction we're going."
To get to the invitational final, the Lords went 3-0 in round-robin play, capped off by a five-set thriller against the host Niagara Knights. After opening with a 2-0 lead, the Knights edged Durham in back-to-back sets before the Lords won 16-14 in the fifth set.
They opened the weekend on Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 victory over the same Mohawk Mountaineers that ended their season by the same score in February. Not including the set the Lords lost, the most points Mohawk scored was 18, but the most convincing set win for Durham was 25-12 in the first.
A dominant 3-0 sweep of the Loyalist Lancers followed, with the Lancers struggling to match the Lords – only having a chance in the opening set. Loyalist was dropped 25-11 and 25-10 in the second and third to be swept.
Now the Lords head to Scarborough on Saturday to open conference play against the Centennial Colts.
Overall Record: 7-7
Conference Record: 0-0
Next match: Saturday, Oct. 20 @ Centennial Colts • 1 p.m. - Scarborough, Ont.
