Thursday night saw the Niagara Knights men's volleyball program (5-2) lose their second match of the season, dropping a tough five-set road game to the Humber Hawks (4-2). The set scores in the contest were 25-20, 25-23, 16-25, 15-25, 15-13.
The Knights struggled to open the match dropping the first two sets to their greater Toronto rivals. The team showed why they are the OCAA's No. 3 ranked team in the third and fourth sets, controlling from start to finish. The fifth set came down to a crucial few points, and the Hawks rode their high-scoring outside hitter Nathan Murdock, who finished with16 total points, to secure the victory.
"I thought it took us a couple sets to settle in, find our rhythm, and let our system take over" said Niagara College men's volleyball head coach Nathan Groenveld. "In the third and fourth sets we were the aggressor and showed how difficult it is for any team to play with us when we dictate play. Any time you play a fifth set however, a ton of luck and bounces are involved. I thought both teams played well and we came up on the wrong end of it."
Six-foot-eight outside hitter Nathan Snippe led all scorers 18 kills, an ace, and nine digs. The strong showing sees the St. Anns, Ontario native now averaging an OCAA West division leading 3.56 points-per-set.
A pair of first-year players also received praise from Groenveld for their performances against the Hawks. "Individually I thought Shonari Hepburn and Sameh Khodr were outstanding for us." Hepburn, a middle blocker from the Bahamas finished with five kills, three aces, and three blocks. While Khdor (Lebanon), turned in nine kills and five aces from the outside hitter position.
The schedule will get not get any easier for the Knights as the team will now travel to Hamilton to take on the undefeated Mohawk Mountaineers on November 28th. The team will wrap up the first half of the 2015-16 season on December 3rd when they host the Redeemer Royals at 8:00pm.
