The Durham Lords won 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-15) against Conestoga Condors in the Ontario Collegiate Athletics Association (OCAA) women’s volleyball qualifier on Saturday, Feb. 14.
The two sides faced off at home where the Lords continued their winning streak against the Condors, leading comfortably in kills (43-27), assists (37-26) and digs (51-39).
With this Valentine’s Day win, the Lords are set to go to the quarterfinals of the OCAA championship. They will now host the Cambrian Golden Shields from Sudbury on Saturday, Feb. 22.
At practice ahead of the game, Lords coach Tony Clarke said the team was working on maintaining strong serving pressure, which came through in the match.
“We were able to put a lot of serving pressure on them, which we wanted to work on during this week, and we did that, and I think we did a really good job on that,” Clarke said. “And then, with our service … we were able to transition to kills, which was awesome.”
Outside hitter Elizabeth McFarlane was the player of the game and shone on the offensive with 16 kills on 30 attempts, taking seven digs and serving three aces.
Chelsea Oke and Jessie Buck added momentum to the Lords’ offence, with nine and seven kills respectively, adding to the home team’s tally of 43 kills against the Condors’ 27.
Clarke praised McFarlane’s setting runs and offensive attacks, and setter Brooke Young for creating opportunities with 34 assists and six digs.
On the defence, Jessica Docherty and Julie Wong held the line with 11 and seven digs respectively. Clarke says Docherty helped set up transitions for the team to get “good balls.”
The Condors attempted a comeback in the second set, but ultimately had to concede it to the Lords, coming up three points short of an equalizer.
“We just got a little complacent, right? So when you’re up a little bit and everything else, and that team, they have a few seniors that they didn’t want to go down without a fight,” Clarke said.
“So, we have to make sure that we are the ones that, unfortunately, want this win more than they do. So, we have to really put the pressure on them and stop holding back.”
Madison Welmers, Hannah Cowie and Bianca Marchetti led the Condors offensive with eight kills each, while Svetlana Babic, Makenna Main and Bianca Marchetti held the defensive line with ten, six and six digs, respectively.
Clarke says the focus ahead of the upcoming quarterfinal against the Golden Shields would be “to become defensively strong and then we’ll have our offence to back us up.”
Durham Lords will play against the Cambrian Golden Shields at CRWC Gyms 1/2 at Durham College, Oshawa at 1 p.m.