The Durham Lords women’s volleyball team fell to the Humber Hawks in the championship game, winning a silver medal at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) tournament on Feb. 26.
The Lords were undefeated during the season with a 20-0 record going into the finals.
The finals were against Humber, a team that was also undefeated this season and who were chasing their 10th consecutive championship.
The Lords were in their second final in three years and looking to break the Hawks long running, ten season, championship streak.
“It was an unreal moment that will stay with me forever- knowing we had supporters all over watching, was amazing,” said Lucia Kalmeyer, the Lords’ right side hitter.
However, the Hawks had a different plan and swept Durham 25-20, 25-12, and 25-18.
Durham managed to get some redemption earlier in the playoffs however, beating the Fanshawe Falcons in the quarterfinals. Durham lost to Fanshawe, they played them in the bronze medal game in 2016, but the Lords got revenge sweeping them 3-0 by scores of 25-11, 25-23, and 25-16.
The Lords encountered the Niagara Knights in the semi-final round for the second year in a row after losing to them in 2016. The Lords once again got redemption with a 3-1 victory. After winning the first two sets 25-20 and 25-17, Durham lost the third set 22-25 before closing out the victory with a 25-21 set win.
Tony Clarke, the Lords’ head coach, is optimistic for the future, but believes the team could still work on some things.
“We had a great season, we did really well, only losing five sets all year which is great. There’s always things to improve on, we could be better at the net blocking, you always want to improve year in year out, you don’t want to become stagnant or anything,” said Clarke.
After this season the team will be losing some key players such as OCAA all-star Allison Marshall, who had 12 kills in the finals, but Clarke is ready to recruit new players for the team.
“Recruiting is always busy, you have to get the best of the best, it’s hard to get good players to attend a college, a lot of them are university-bound which is unfortunate, it’s going to be busy, and we will be a young team next year,” said Clarke.
Even with the changes coming to the team Clarke is already planning ahead.
“[We’re going to keep on] recruiting to maintain the success of the program [and] be provincially-recognized,” said Clarke.
