Friday, February 6th saw the Niagara College men's volleyball program lose for the first time in a month, as the team suffered a hard-fought five-set loss to the CCAA's #3 ranked Mohawk Mountaineers (15-1, 1st OCAA). The set scores in the nearly two hour match were 18-22, 25-22, 25-16, 28-30, 17-15.
The Knights showed an ability to compete with one of the premier teams in Canada, including the opening set that they controlled from start to finish, and a dramatic late set comeback that saw the team battle from a 23-18 deficit in the fourth set.
"Five set games, regardless of opponent, are tough and decided by the slimmest of margin. Between high level opponents they are decided by one pass or one missed attack" said Niagara College men's volleyball head coach Nathan Groenveld. "Tonight we battled with the top team in the province and came out on the losing end, but as a group there are a lot of valuable learning opportunities from a loss like this."
The Knights were led by six-foot-eight outside hitter Nathan Snippe (St. Anns). The second year Smithville Christian grad finished an impressive 16 of 28 scoring attempts. Groenveld commented "Snippe came off the bench and really scored for us. His play gave us a boost in the match."
Rookie outside hitter Cole Jordan continued his strong play in the second half, finishing with 12 kills and an ace. The six-foot-four London native has been red hot for the Knights averaging 12.5 points-per-match over the team's last five outings.
Fourth-year setter Steve Stone (St. Catharines) continued his strong play. The recreation and leisure studies student is second in the OCAA in assists-per-set. Stone finished the Mohawk match with 46 assists, and added four service aces.
The loss moves the Knights to 10-6 on the season, and temporarily into sixth place in the highly competitive OCAA West Division. The team has two games remaining against the two teams directly ahead of them in the standings.
Coach Groenveld continued "we will go back into the gym and work on increasing our serving pressure and work on our out of system and transition offence to prepare for the next match."
Up next the team will host the Sheridan Bruins (11-6, 5th West) on Thursday, February 12th at 8:00pm at the Welland Campus athletic centre. The team will wrap up their regular season on February 15th when they host the St. Clair Saints (12-4, 3rd West).