Wednesday night saw the Niagara College men's volleyball program remain undefeated, after a hard fought road victory over the Redeemer Royals. The Royals, known for their passionate and loud home crowds gave Niagara one of their toughest tests of the 2013-14 season, but the CCAA's second ranked Knights proved up to the challenge and emerged with a 3-1 victory. The set scores in the contest were 22-25, 25-22, 25-19, and 25-16.
The Knights struggled to open the match, dropping the first set to the defending OCAA Bronze Medalist Royals.
After the match Niagara College men's volleyball head coach Nathan Groenveld commented "it took our guys the first set to get comfortable with the small, loud environment and to adjust to Redeemer's game."
After rallying over the next three sets, and finding their rhythm, Groenveld felt that "as a young group we learned a lot tonight about staying patient and aggressive in our process. When we take care of details we give ourselves an opportunity to win any match."
Throughout the season, the Knights game plan has been to serve well, defend at the net, and give their explosive outside hitter duo of Jeff Scott (Georgetown) and Daniel Groenveld (Welland) the majority of offensive attacks.
They executed the strategy throughout the match against the Royals.
OCAA service ace leader Travis Waite (St. Thomas, ON) added to his total finishing the contest with four service aces, while Ben Fillmore's (Cayuga) four ace performance sees the second-year outside hitter moved into a tie for second place in the OCAA with 10 aces.
For the second consecutive match, Groenveld finished with over 23 kills, bringing his OCAA leading total to 115.
While second-year Broadcasting student, and reigning OCAA rookie of the year Jeff Scott continued his outstanding play, recording 13 kills and a block.
The victory moves the Knights to 7-0 on the season and the team will now have nine days off before hosting the CCAA's 13th ranked Fanshawe Falcons on Friday, November 29th at the Welland Campus Athletic Centre. First-serve is set for 8:00pm.
