February 18, 2023...TORONTO - The Niagara Knights women's volleyball team will be advancing to the 2023 OCAA Championship after winning a five set thriller Saturday afternoon against George Brown.

Saturday afternoon's match served as the OCAA crossover playoff game, where the winner moves on to the final eight championship tournament. This year's championship will take place at Sheridan College February 22-25th.

Saturday's game was a battle of two fourth division teams with the Knights finishing 11-7 in the West and the Huskies finishing with 12-6 in the East.

The first set saw George Brown narrowly escape with the opening set win at 25-27 and carry that momentum into set two to up 2-0 on Niagara with a 19-25 win.

The Knights staged their comeback storming back to take set three 25-13 to cut the Huskies lead in half. It was then Niagara's turn to carry that momentum into the fourth set, where they again took over and cruised to a 25-19 win to force a fifth and deciding set.

Set five saw a good battle between both teams going point for point. Niagara eventually would have the upper hand when they secured two back-to-back points late in the set to earn the 15-12 win and punch their ticket to the OCAA Championship.

Niagara will have a tough opening game at the tournament, facing Humber in the day's first quarterfinal match at 1:00pm Thursday at Sheridan.