SENECA 3, DURHAM 0

NORTH YORK, Ont. - The fear of losing the momentum generated from an 8-1 first semester never materialized for the Seneca Sting.

The Sting, hosts of the 2014 CCAA Women's Volleyball National Championship March 5-8, played some of their best volleyball on the season Saturday afternoon in a three set sweep over the Durham Lords.

A recipe for success used in the first half of the season worked once again for the Sting as they used aggressive serving to constantly keep the Lords on the defensive while playing excellent defence on their own side of the net.

Eager to get back on the hardwood, the Sting jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead in the opening set of 2014, leading to a Lords timeout. The timeout did little to slow the Sting momentum as Lindsay Ballance (Napanee, Ont.) continued her strong serving, scoring on 10 consecutive serves, to take a 14-1 lead. When the Lords were able to generate offence, they gave the ball right back with missed serves or attack errors. An attack attempt on the final play of the set by the Lords sailed long, giving the Sting a 25-10 win.

Little changed in the second set as the Sting scored the first three points of the set. Another early timeout by the Lords once again failed to stop the Seneca machine. The Sting scored six straight points off of Bianca Newman's (Ajax, Ont.) serve to take a 12-2 advantage. The Lords would score four of the next six points, only to see the Sting put up eight straight points off of Maxine Law-Tan's (Burlington, Ont.) serve. The Sting would go on to win the set 25-8.

The final set of the match generated the most suspense as the Lords played their best volleyball of the afternoon. Despite an early 6-2 Seneca advantage, the Lords would not go quietly. Allison Doris served four consecutive points to give Durham their first lead of the afternoon, 9-8. Tied at 14-14, Ballance struck again from behind the serving line, helping the Sting take an 18-14 lead.  The Lords continued to battle, but could not close to within two as the Sting won the third and final set 25-21.

Ballance and Tina O'Donnell (Scarborough, Ont.) led the Sting with six kills each. Paulynne Reyes (Edmonton) had a match-high 14 assists while libero Clare Weisser (Queensville, Ont.) had 12 digs.

The Sting will travel to Loyalist on Wednesday at 6 p.m. while the Lords travel to Fleming Thursday at 6 p.m.

Source: Seneca College

NORTH YORK, Ont. - Not much went right for the Durham College women's volleyball team on Saturday afternoon as the first place Seneca Sting rolled to a 3-0 sweep over the Lords.

Durham found themselves down 8-1 in the first set and could not find a way break up Seneca's momentum as the Sting cruised to their ninth win of the year. Set scores were 25-10, 25-8 and 25-21.

The Lords fought hard to get back into the game in the third set which began with a big kill by outside hitter Jessica Broad (Courtice, Ont.), but Seneca was still able to prevail as they pulled out a 25-21 win.

Broad led the Lords offence with seven kills while Melissa Semeniuk (Ajax, Ont.) had three. Madison Pilon (Rondeau, Ont.) had a presence at the net with four stuff blocks.

Seneca, who is hosting the CCAA national championship this year, is 9-1 with their only loss coming against Georgian College who won the Adidas Cup in January. Both teams will be looking to qualifying for the OCAA championship that is being hosted by Durham from Feb. 20-22 at the CRWC.

Durham (5-6) will look to get back in the win column next week when they travel to Peterborough to take on the Fleming Knights on Thursday, Jan. 17. Fleming has struggled this season with 10 losses but took George Brown to five sets in their last meeting.

Source: Durham College