Women's Soccer
The Niagara Knights women's soccer team is off to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) playoffs after defeating St. Lawrence College 3-2 in Saturday afternoon's OCAA cross-over game in Kingston.
The Knights were out to a 3-0 lead with goals from captain Michelle Maecker (3rd year, Fonthill) Terin Hultink (1st year, Fenwick), Katelyn Mix (2nd year, Gilford).
Niagara looked like they were in the clear with a comfortable 3-0 lead on the Vikings to start the second half, but SLC was not going down with out a fight.
The Vikings got on the board at the 60-minute mark, and again midway through the second half to come within one of the Knights 3-2 lead. Despite the valiant effort, the Knights were able to hang on to the lead and move on to the OCAA Championship.
Veteran keeper Taylor Major was a key reason the Knights we are able to secure the win and return to the OCAA Championships. After only facing six shots in the first half, St. Lawrence peppered her with 14 in the second, but Major had been prepping all season long for that situation.
"I thought the team battled so hard today," said Major. "We were able to keep our composure and play out game. Coach D'Angelo (Goal keeper coach) trained me on those type of situations so I'm ready to make those key saves."
Head coach Rob Lalama is eager to return to the OCAA Championships this season, after falling short of the medal rounds last year in a 2-1 loss to Durham in the quarterfinal.
"It's a great feeling to be returning to the OCAA Championship," said Lalama. We came out strong against SLC. Our only mistake was not capitalizing on all the chances we created. In the second half, our keeper Taylor Major was spectacular in securing the win. She was our player of the match."
The Knights will begin their quest for OCAA gold on Wednesday when they travel to Redeemer College, the host of the 2019 championship. The women will have their work cut out for them, going up against defending champion Fanshawe Falcons (8-0-1). Earlier this season the Knights lost to the Falcons at home by a score 6-0.
The quarterfinal match-up is set for 10:00 A.M. at the Redeemer Spots complex.
Men's Soccer
After securing a playoff spot in last Wednesday's 5-0 win over Redeemer, the Niagara College men's soccer team travelled to Ottawa to battle the Algonquin Thunder, who finished first in the OCAA East, for their cross-over game.
Algonquin got on the board early with a goal coming from the Thunder at the 12 minute mark of the first half. It would remain a 1-0 game through till the second half, when goal keeper Romario James had a heart-breaking rolling ball slip through his hands to make it a 2-0 Algonquin lead.
The Thunder would go on to add one more to seal the deal with a 3-1win for the Thunder to move on to the OCAA Championships. The Knights lone goal came from Delmar Rodolfe (1st year, Toronto).
"We went there with hopes of stealing a game from the first place team," said head coach Frank DeChellis. "We played well at times but conceded a second goal under unfortunate circumstances and a penalty kick to give them three. Overall our goalkeeping was good enough for us to win that game. "
"We had a very young team this year, but there is potential for 13 players to return next year and that excites us. We haven't had a rebuilding year in a while and I have to admit it was different for us as coaches. Different, but enjoyable. It's a different type of delivery. It's strange to not be going to the tournament but we are hungry for next year."
Women's Basketball
The women's basketball team opened their season with the western road swing to Sarnia and Windsor this weekend to tip-off against Lambton and St. Clair College.
Friday's matchup was a rough one for the Knights, who were held to no baskets while Lambton when on a 14-0 run in the first quarter, ending the first down 24- 4.
Half-time didn't get much better for the Knights, as Lambton carried a 33 point lead into the third.
Lambton would go on to finish with a 73-34 win.
While it wasn't the debut he was hoping for, head coach Chris Rao is taking the loss as a learning opportunity for what it takes to play at this level.
"It was a real welcome to the OCAA west moment for most of us," said Rao. "For our players, it was an introduction to playing against that level of effort. It was a new experience and something we have to handle better in the future, hopefully we can learn how much the details matter and follow through on what we are trying to do. "
That welcome seemed to turn things around for the Knights in their match-up against a very good St. Clair team on Saturday. Despite being on the wrong side of the win column, coach Rao was pleased with his team effort in the 89-43 loss.
"Our effort was much improved and I was pleased with how hard we played. St. Clair, like Lambton, is a very well coached team with some talented players, I felt that we forced St. Clair to make harder plays than we did last night. We shot terribly but if we continue to move forward with these kinds of efforts we give ourselves a chance to be competitive in a lot of games."
The Knights sit at 0-2 on this young season, with their next game coming Saturday October 26th against Conestoga (0-1).
Men's Basketball
In their opening game of the regular season, the Knights men's basketball team travelled to Sarnia to take on the Lambton Lions.
The Knights raced out to a 13-8 lead, prompting the Lions to call a timeout. The break in play seemed to be what the Lions needed, as they outscored Niagara by a 14-8 margin the rest of the way to take a 22-21 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
Niagara battled all night long, but came up short losing 84-75.
The Knights were led by 5th year guard Lequan Hylton (5th year, Mississauga) with 29 pts, including (6) 3pt field goals. Stephone Augustin, a first year guard from Nassau, Bahamas, followed with 13 pts and 11 rebounds. Johnnie Richardson (3rd year, Niagara Falls) chipped in with 11 pts. Veteran Jordon McDonald (5th year, Mississauga) and Kevin Cooper (4th year, Nassau Bahamas) also reached double figures in rebounds with 12 and 10 respectively.
The Knights lost the second game of their road trip on Saturday to the St Clair Saints 83-65. After a slow start, the Knights made a great come back to even the game in the third quarter, but were unable to finish with a strong fourth quarter.
The Knights were led again by Hylton, who finished with 25 pts to lead all scorers. Rahim Bardi (2nd year, St. Catharines) followed with 15 pts and McDonald and Augustin led in rebounds with 12 and 11 respectively.
Head coach Phil Mosley was disappointed with his team's losses but is confident they will continue to grow and be a competitor in the OCAA West.
"We are battling with consistency and establishing our identity as a team," said Mosley." "We are still attempting to establish consistency in our team defence and limit unforced turnovers."
I believe in this group and I am confident they will continue to put in the work to grow as a team, and get better in all facets of the game."
Women's Volleyball
Women's volleyball got out to a successful start on their northern swing road trip this past weekend, picking up to wins against Cambrian and Boreal.
Both teams kept it interesting for the season opener. The first set saw the Knights edge out the Shield 25-23, but it was Cambrian who took the second set 25-16. Cambrian also went on to take the third set 25-18, but not before the Knights came back to win the fourth set in another close one, 27-25. The back and forth action forced a fifth and final set, with the Knights ultimately taking the 15-11 win, defeating the Cambrian Shield 3-2.
The win came as the first win for new head coach Steve Dow, who was pleased with his team's effort to open the season on the road.
"It's always tough to spend the day on the bus and then have to play, let alone another teams home opener," said Dow. "Cambrian plays with a lot of energy and forced us to play up to a high standard. I think it was obvious it was the first game of the year for us. It took us most of the first set to get the butterflies to fly in formation. We did a great job making it close and that momentum carried over into the second set. The third set Cambrian came out strong and their tough serving put us in a hole early. We did a great job coming back from another slow start in the 4th set to force Cambrian to a 5th set. In the fifth set both teams traded errors early, but what secured us the win, was our ability to play clean volleyball when it really mattered. We didn't play our best volleyball, but Cambrian is a team built on tough serving and strong defending and it gave us fits. With that being said, I have a ton of respect for the resiliency our girls showed to not give up when things looked bleak and push through to get our first win of the year."
The Knights kept things rolling into Sunday afternoon, sweeping Boreal College 3-0. (At the time of posting, full results were not yet available.)
The Knights are now 2-0 to start the season, a trend Dow would like to keep up.
"I am really pleased with the complete game effort our team showed. We played another home opener with a team that plays scrappy defence. We responded well and cleaned up a lot of our offence from the night before. We were able to get all 13 athletes into the game and our first years Lexi Barclay (1st year, Wyoming) and Taylor Maddison Nguyen (1st year, Oakville) both went on a great serving runs to help propel our team to a 3-0 Win. It was the definition of a team win."
The Knights will continue their season on the road Saturday afternoon when they travel to Fanshawe (1-0) for a 1:00 P.M. start.
Men's Volleyball
Men's volleyball also secured back-to back wins in their opening weekend in Sudbury against Cambrian and Boreal.
The Knights handled the Shield in three sets Saturday night (25-13, 25-11, and 25-19). Knight's third-year outside hitter Elijah Bugiardini (Hamilton) had a big opening game for the Knights with 14 kills in three sets.
"I thought we kept up our intensity and focus throughout the game and it was good to see that type of energy from the group," said head coach Tommy Sloan. "We know that creating a certain type of personality is going to be important for us and this was a step in the right direction.We struggled with our error management at certain points in the game but we were able to get everyone in the game and work on some strategic substitutions that we want to use this year."
The Knights also went on to defeat Boreal College on sunday afternoon 3-0 (25-20, 25-8, 25-19)
"We struggled in the first set as we stared slow and were chasing the game for the majority of the set," said Sloan. "After going down 16-11, a good serving run by Ashton Fehr along with some improved blocking allowed us to finish on a 14-4 run to take the set. We settled down nicely in the 2nd set as our offense woke up to go along with another great serving run by Fehr. In the third set, we were able to give our starters some rest and our reserves managed the game beautifully on the way to a comfortable 25-19 win."
Third year middle Ashton Fehr (3rd year, Leamington) was the performer of the afternoon with four kills, four aces, one block, three digs and two massive serving runs of eight in a row and 10 in a row.
Next up for the Knights will be Saturday afternoon against Fanshawe (0-1).
Golf
After finishing just shy of the podium at the OCAA Championships in Kingston, Knights golfer Logan Lammerant was awarded a spot at the 2019 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in Sorel-Tracy Quebec.
In what would be his final year competing for the Knights, Lammerant went out in spectacular fashion at the three day tournament, tying for 5th place overall in the men's individual results.
With the finish, Lammerant was honoured as a first-team All-Star from the CCAA in the tournament.
