NIPISSING 3, SENECA 0

One team moved on to the OCAA championship this afternoon while another's season came to a crushing halt.

The Nipissing Lakers, a top five team in Canada for the first half of the season, seem to be finding their game at just the right time as they easily swept the Seneca Sting Sunday afternoon at Newnham Gym in an OCAA men's volleyball qualifier.

Seneca fed off a supportive crowd early as Will Oyetakin opened the match with a thunderous kill. Predrag Gajic followed with an ace which had the home team fans on their feet. The momentum did not last long as Nipissing gained their composure and exchanged points to 10-10. The Lakers went on the first run of the match, scoring off four consecutive rallies to take a 14-10 lead.

Seneca's Jordan Darlington had a block which brought the Sting within one at 21-20. Darlington would later add a kill to give Seneca their first lead since 9-8 which led to a Lakers timeout. The Lakers would score four of the next five points to take the first set 26-24.

The momentum appeared to be completed with the Lakers as they held the lead throughout the second set. Leading 18-13 and looking to prevent a Sting comeback, Nipissing's Frankie Edgecombe had an uncontested kill to give his team a 19-13 advantage. Back-to-back aces by Andre Leblanc gave the Lakers a 22-14 lead until Gajic's kill stopped the bleeding momentarily for the Sting. Adam Leblanc finished off the set with another powerful kill for the Lakers for a 25-19 set victory.

The third set was the least competitive of the match as Nipissing controlled from the beginning.  The closest Seneca would get was down four points at 7-3 as the Lakers won rallies at will. The Lakers would win the set 25-10 to move on to the OCAA championship.

Throughout the match, Nipissing consistently hit over the Sting blocks, at one point hitting over a triple block. The Lakers showed they will be a team to contend with next weekend as the competition meet at Sheridan College.

Gajic led the Sting with eight kills along with seven apiece from Darlington and Vladyslav Danyliuk. Gajic also added three serving aces and was tops with nine digs.

Edgecombe had a match-high 13 kills. Adam Leblanc added six kills and five blocks along with four blocks from Tyler Phillipson. Taylor Bielby was the Lakers team leader with six digs.

Source: Seneca College