Beach volleyball? In the middle of winter? It was a cool idea and Durham College made it happen – sort of.
Durham brought its fans out of the cold and then the Lords turned up the heat indoors, sweeping Seneca in a beach-themed men’s and women’s volleyball doubleheader on Jan 12.
“Second semester, it’s the winter, a lot of people maybe have the blues, so it was just something to get students engaged, have something different go on at a home game as opposed to just regular T-shirt tosses,” said Christopher Cameron, special events coordinator for DC athletics.
The gym was littered with beach lei’s and beach balls, in front of the bleachers sat four beach chairs with an umbrella covering them in shade, students wore beach shorts and tank tops to show their support, outside of that, the game was completely untouched by the theme.
Both Durham teams went into the game with large winning streaks, as the women’s team is undefeated, and the men’s team has lost only one game all season.
The women’s team kicked off the doubleheader with a 25-23 in the first set against Seneca. The team then brought the momentum into the second and third sets winning easily over the Sting, 25-14 and 25-16.
Tony Clarke, head coach of the women’s team says his team has a strong combination of experience and ability.
“We have some good options offensively…we have the experience too, to help us out, but we just need to get going more and to keep pushing and I think that with the experience, that helps out,” said Clarke.
The Lords men’s team capped off the night with an equally impressive sweep over the Sting, which improves its record 9-1.
The Lords fought through the first set to come out on top 25-21. Durham continued to fight through the second set coming from behind to win 25-20. They finished off Seneca with a resounding 25-11 victory in the third set.
The Durham Lord’s men’s team beat the Seneca Sting 3-0
John Pham, who finished the night with 30 assists, says the key to success is humility.
“I know sometimes when we play weaker teams we tend to get really cocky, we tend to get mouthy, as long as we stay humble we will do very good,” said Pham.
Both Durham teams are coming off tournaments that they each won.
“One of the things we have to work with as the coaches have identified for this group of players is making sure that we play for each other and that we come together as a team so we don’t have individuals out on the court, but we have a solid team out on the floor,” said George Matsusaki, head coach for the men’s team.
The men’s and women’s teams will move on to face the Georgian Grizzlies at home on Jan. 26 in another doubleheader with the women’s team playing at 6 P.M. and the men’s team play at 8 P.M.
