The Niagara College men's volleyball program started the New Year in gold fashion, going unbeaten in the 8th Annual Knights Tournament held at the Welland Campus Athletic Centre on January 2 and 3. Eight teams from the OCAA participated, including six teams from the East Division.
Day one saw the Knights open the tournament with a four-set win over the Georgian Grizzlies – 25-20, 25-17, 21-25, 25-18 – then surviving a five-set scare by Trent University – 25-21, 19-25, 25-22, 23-25, 17-15.
Day two had the Knights square off against the Algonquin Thunder in the semi-finals, a team sitting in second place in the East Division. The Knights swept the Thunder in straight sets – 25-12, 25-17, 25-11 – advancing to the gold medal game against the Fanshawe Falcons.
In their last regular season game before the holiday break, Niagara went on the road and fell to Fanshawe, 3-1. With the loss fresh in their minds, the Knights swept the Falcons as well – 25-19, 25-21, 26-24 – to win gold and wrap up the tournament undefeated.
"This tournament is an important part of our process," said head coach Nathan Groenveld. "It allows us to get back together after some holiday time off and gives us a great chance to compete."
Niagara's third year outside hitter Jeff Scott (Georgetown) was named the tournament's most valuable player and was named a tournament all-star along with Bret Polfuss (Kitchener) and setter Steve Stone (St. Catharines). The other tournament all-stars were Jason Grimm (Georgian), Jeremy Hoekstra (Durham), Derek Braun (Fanshawe), and Mark Muehmer (Fanshawe).
The Durham Lords swept Georgian College to capture the bronze medal, while George Brown beat Trent 3-1 to finish fifth and St. Clair defeated Algonquin in seventh place.
Finishing the tournament with a sparkling 4-0 record was the cause of a complete team effort said coach Groenveld.
"We used different lineups all four matches and everyone had meaningful contributions for us."
The regular season starts back up for the Knights on Wednesday, January 7 on the road to face the Humber Hawks (7-2, 2nd West) at 8:00pm.
