People say the third time’s a charm and in this case it was third place is a charm for Durham College’s (DC) women’s volleyball team when the spiking stopped at the 30th annual Adidas Cup last weekend.
The DC Lords won the bronze medal after defeating Cambrian College 3-0 and the team was pleased with its overall result.
Twelve Ontario colleges came to compete in the three-day tournament hosted by DC. The Fanshawe Falcons finished with the gold medal, beating the Mohawk Mountaineers in the final.
The Lords played strategically with a focus on teamwork and communication and had to overcome some missing players to gain their third place position.
“I was a little bit worried because we had one player on placement, one player dealing with bronchitis, another girl ill, and then we had another girl off through protocol with a concussion,” says DC head coach Tony Clarke.
Clarke says the five-week Ontario college faculty strike in the fall definitely affected the team but he is glad the Lords were able to get through the tournament by rallying around one another. He says the team is moving in the right direction.
At the start of the tournament the Lords came out strong in their games against Cambrian College and Sherbrooke College. With back-to-back wins of 3-2, the Lords advanced into day two in first place of their pool.
On day two the Lords again came out strong and defeated Canadore College in three straight sets.
However, the Lords fell 3-1 in their last game of the day against Mohawk College, putting Mohawk in the gold medal match and leaving Durham to battle for bronze.
“It felt great, I thought it was well-deserved since in our last game that we previously played Cambrian and went to five sets with them,” says Jessica Joensen, DC’S All-Star of the Adidas Cup. “We went to three sets in the third bronze medal match, that was a big improvement for the weekend.”
Clarke says there was a sense of calm among the team after the win against Cambrian. He says hopefully they can maintain that calm in future matches.
Joensen says the team plans to keep up the communication on the court, staying loud, and letting no ball touch the ground.
The Lords’ next home game will be Jan. 23 as they take on the Georgian Grizzlies 6 p.m.
“I think we can beat them,” says rookie Sarah Rayment.
