OSHAWA, ON - The Durham College men's volleyball team are back in the win column to open the winter semester, defeating the Canadore Panthers in four sets.

The fall semester didn't end the way Durham would have liked with a loss in Toronto to George Brown, but they recognized an opportunity for a fresh start coming out of the holiday break and they send the fans home happy on Saturday night.

Durham had some rust to shake off at the very beginning as the Panthers scored the first three points to take an early lead. The first set was tight right to the very end. Down 24-23, Will Doucet (Toronto, ON) smashed the ball for a kill to tie it and the opening set required extra serves. 

Jonas Felix (Woodbridge, ON) served an ace to bring about set point but the Panthers continued to claw their way back to tie it again. The set would end when William Egan (Cobden, ON) fired the ball over the net for a service ace, taking the first set 27-25 in Durham's favour.

On the other hand, the second set is one that the Lords would like to forget. Early on, the Panthers were leading 13-2 and continued to ride a wave of momentum that saw them win the set 25-16 to tie the match at one.

Durham would brush it off, finishing the third set with a block from Doucet and an attack error from Canadore to take it 25-22 and grab the lead right back. 

The fourth set was close all the way through. With the Lords leading 23-22, a temper tantrum led to a red card shown Canadore's way and forced them to make changes late in the game. Those forced changes couldn't save their evening, as the Lords won the fourth set 28-26 off of an ace served by Egan to take the match 3-1.

Egan was by a substantial margin the team-leader in points with 18.0, recording 13 kills, four service aces and a blocked shot.

Two other Lords were in double-digit point territory, with Doucet and his 10.0 as a result of five kills, four blocked shots and a service ace, as well as Carter Reid (Oshawa, ON) who put up 10.0 points via eight kills and two solo blocks.

Benjamin Rocheleau (Stouffville, ON) saw the ball a lot during the evening, tallying 23 assists in total. Owen Heeringa (Bowmanville, ON) was a beast at the net, blocking five shots on the night,

Durham's next game is scheduled for Thursday, January 18th at home against the George Brown Huskies with the first serve scheduled for 8:00 PM. The night will also feature our annual Bell Let's Talk night.

Stay in the know regarding Durham College Athletics and follow us on Instagram, X (Twitter) and Facebook.