OCAA Volleyball - Lakers sweep; advance to provincials

The Nipissing Lakers men’s volleyball team will advance to the OCAA Championship hosted by Sheridan College Feb 21-23 after a dominating 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-10) sweep of the Seneca Sting in their sudden death cross-over playoff match.

The first set proved important as the Lakers led most of the way however late in the game with Seneca up 21-20 coach Eric Yung called a timeout that rallied the troops as the Lakers went on to claim the 26-24 victory.

From this point on the Lakers took control of the match and executed at a high level to earn the trip to provincials.

"Seneca came out flying today as we expected playing in front of their home crowd, our guys got into a rhythm as soon as the nerves settled, we got better as the game went on,” said head coach Yung.

“It was nice to see some key players return to the line-up and build some chemistry with Taylor. We are starting to play more consistently and we are looking forward to getting better with each point at the championships."

Fourth-year middle player Frankie Edgecombe had a match-high 13 kills while Adam Leblanc added six kills and five blocks.

Tyler Phillipson added four block while setter Taylor Bielby was effective at distributing the ball as well as playing solid defence collecting six digs.

The Lakers now have a couple of days to prepare for Niagara who finished first in the West division and will be Lakers opponent in Game 1.

The Lakers and Knights split the season series that saw the Lakers dominate the Knights in their first match of the year however the Knights exacted some revenge when they visited North Bay in January winning 3-2.

Submitted to BayToday.ca