Thursday, February 12th saw the Niagara College men's volleyball program play host to the Sheridan Bruins at the Welland campus athletic centre. The match saw two teams jockeying for position in the OCAA West lock horns, with the Knights proving to be too strong, cruising to a quick three set 25-17, 30-28, 25-19 victory.
The match served as a backdrop for the second annual Niagara College volleyball grad night. Prior to first serve, seven graduating members of the men's volleyball program were presented with framed photographs to celebrate their academic accomplishments and commemorate their time in a Knights uniform.
The 2014-15 men's volleyball graduating student-athletes were Bailey Cochrane (Barrie), Ben Fillmore (Cayuga), Dan Mrowiec (Brampton), Bret Polfuss (Kitchener), Jeff Scott (Georgetown), Nathan Snippe (St. Anns), and Aaron Vanderlugt (Burlington).
The difference in the contest proved to be the service game of the Knights. The team finished the match with 10 total service aces, but the entire roster kept the Sheridan attack off balance for the majority of the match. Third-year outside hitters Bret Polfuss and Jeff Scott gave the Bruins the most trouble, as the veterans recorded four aces each.
The six-foot-three Scott continued his dominant play of late, recording 11 kills on 18 attempts, prompting head coach Nathan Groenveld to comment "Jeff hit and served extremely well for us, scoring points and putting Sheridan out of their system all match."
The Knights' middle blockers Logan Varga (Brantford) and Aaron Vanderlugt were also highly efficient, converting on 15 of 28 total attacks.
Second-year libero Bailey Cochrane showed why he was a first-team OCAA all-star last season finishing with 28 of his team's 35 digs. The five-foot-eleven sales and marketing student currently leads the OCAA in digs-per-set with 3.8.
"A nice 3-0 win tonight against a team that we are battling with for playoff seeding" said Groenveld. "We have been concentrating on playing better and better every match in the second half, and we continue to compete hard night in and night out."
The defining moment of the match proved to be late in the second set. The Knights were trailing 20-16. A timeout saw the team regain focus and utilize their service game and net defence to claw their way back into the frame.
Coach Groenveld continued "winning the second set after being down was big for us tonight and showed that when we play aggressively we can run against anyone."
The win moves the Knights to 11-6 on the season and into fifth place in the highly competitive OCAA West. The team currently sits just two points out of the three-way log jam for third place in the division.
The team will host the St. Clair Saints on Sunday, February 15th. The Saints (12-4) currently sit in second place in the division, and as the hosts of the OCAA provincial championship will receive an automatic bye into the event.
A win against the Saints will see the Knights greatly improve their chances of hosting an OCAA playoff game on Sunday, February 22nd, while a loss will almost guarantee the team will hit the road for a match against one of the East Division's higher seeds.
First serve for Sunday's final regular season match is set for 3:00pm. Admission is free for current NC students and those under the age of 18. For those unable to be in attendance, all home games are live streamed at www.ocaatv.com.
