The Cambrian Golden Shield (0-15, 10th OCAA West) and Boreal Vipères (2-15, 9th OCAA West) will travel South to visit the Niagara Knights men's volleyball program (11-3, 2nd OCAA West) on February 6th and 7th respectively.
The Knights enter the weekend set ranked sixth in the CCAA National Rankings and have won six of their past seven contests. With four games remaining in the regular season the Knights find themselves tied in the standings with the Mohawk Mountaineers (11-4, 2nd OCAA West). Holding the tiebreaker with Mohawk, the Knights control their own destiny when it comes to securing a first round playoff bye. Each of the top two teams in the West division will receive a bye directly into the OCAA Championships, held at Seneca College on February 25-27.
As the season draws to a close, a pair of Niagara players rank among the league's best in the OCAA. Steve Stone (St. Catharines) leads the OCAA with an average of 9.61 assists per set. Nathan Snippe (St. Anns) is tied for fouth in both scoring and kills, averaging 4.0 points and 3.5 kills per set. Jeff Scott (Georgetown) sits just behind Snippe with 3.4 points per set, good enough for 12th in the OCAA.
The Knights will look to lean on the three aforementioned student-athletes in their matchups with the Golden Shield and Vipères over the weekend. Collectively the Knights possess one of the league's highest scoring, high-powered offences in the conference. Strong ball distribution from the duo of Steve Stone and Garrett Suderman (Niverville, NB) has kept opponents off balance for the majority of the season, and should once again prove to be a difference maker in the pair of weekend contests.
Saturday's matchup against Cambrian will take place at 8:00pm, while Sunday's matchup with Boreal will take place at 3:00pm. Both contests will take place at the Welland Campus Athletic Centre. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5.00 while students and those under the age of 17 are admitted free. The game will be streamed live at http://goknights.ca/watchlive.
