Wednesday, February 7th saw the Niagara Knights women's volleyball program close out their regular season home schedule with a 3-1 loss to the visiting Fanshawe Falcons (13-3, 2nd OCAA West). Wednesday night's result drops the Niagara to 10-7 on the season, maintaining 4th spot in the OCAA West Division.
Wednesday night also served as the Knights' annual women's volleyball Grad Game, which saw graduating veterans Jordan Koslowski (Hamilton, Ont.), Shayna Graham (Welland, Ont.), Amy Bultje (Chatham, Ont.), Rachel Rivers (Cambridge, Ont.) and Nicole Chiesa (Thorold, Ont.) honoured prior to opening serve.
The Knights were impressive out of the gate, taking the first set by a commanding 13 points (25-12). Niagara would continue their strong play heading into the second set, constantly attacking the Falcons' defense. Both teams would exchange late set points, but in the end, Fanshawe would ultimately come out with the 30-28 victory.
Niagara continued to compete, but their inability to close out sets, along with a tireless Falcons' attack, proved to be too much for the program, causing them to drop the final two sets 25-22 and 25-20.
"Not the result we wanted tonight," said Knights' head coach Nathan Janzen. "Our effort level was awesome tonight, but we need to find a way to close out late match sets. We need to move on from this loss and shift our focus to our season finale against Redeemer."
The Knights were once again paced offensively by captains Rachel Rivers and Jordan Koslowski, contributing 13 and 12 kills respectively. Koslowski was a major part of the defense tonight for her knights, leading the program with 13 digs.
Leading the Fanshawe attack was 3rd year outside hitter Meghan Morelli. The product of London, Ontario finished with a match high 17 kills. Falcons' 2nd year libero/outside hitter Lindsay Wilcox (Waterdown, Ont.) led her defensive unit with a match high 20 digs.
The Knights are back in action Saturday, February 10th when the travel to Ancaster, Ontario to close out their regular season against the hometown Redeemer Royals (3-14, 9th OCAA West).
