CHRONICLE 16-17 ISSUE 08

20 The Chronicle January 24 - 30, 2017 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca
Sports
Lords win gold at home
DC women's
volleyball
team wins the
Adidas Cup for
the first time
in 12 years
Christopher Jones
The Chronicle
To say that the Durham Lords
women’s volleyball team has been
good this season is an understatement.
The Lords have been unbeaten
through 11 games in their own
conference, (at the Chronicle’s
deadline).
No moment better exemplifies
the Lords play as their performance
at the Adidas Cup hosted at
Durham College on Jan. 6-7, where
they won all but one set, defeating
the Loyalist Lancers in two straight
for the final.
“We are actually so excited that
we won that,” said Megan Romain,
a second year setter on the team.
She also said winning the Adidas
Cup at home was a big boost to the
team’s morale.
While the team feels confident,
head coach Tony Clarke admits
there was not a significant challenge
for the Lords in the tournament.
“It was nice to win, but not all of
the best teams were there,” Clarke
said, adding it’s been a long time
since Durham won its own tourney.
“However, it was nice to come out
with a win after having a 12-year
drought.”
The Lords hope to keep this
trend going through the rest of the
season.
“We’ll keep on continuing to
build, and try to turn that switch
on because we compete well in our
league and all that stuff,” Clarke
said.
“So we have to turn that switch
on in order to get a little bit better
and to push and compete well
against the west teams in the provincial
championships.”
Photograph courtesy of Scott Dennis
The Lords women's volleyball team celebrate after winning the Adidas Cup at home.
Ridgebacks hockey teams
shooting towards the playoffs
Logan Caswell
The Chronicle
The UOIT men’s and women’s
hockey teams are more than halfway
through their seasons, and
both teams are shooting towards
playoffs.
The men started strong winning
eight of their first ten games. However,
things have been a little rocky
recently with Ben Blasko and Jason
Shaw battling injuries.
After a strong start, the men
were ranked fourth on the national
U-Sport rankings. But it’s been an
up and down season ever since. The
men dropped to sixth in the standings,
one point behind the Université
du Québec à Trois-Rivières
(UQTR) Patriotes for fifth place,
and two points behind the Carleton
Ravens for fourth place.
Cameron Yuill, captain of the
Ridgeback’s men’s team, said his
team needs to get focused before
the playoffs, and he hopes to see
his team get healthy.
“We have seven games to build
towards playoffs, get in good habits
and get everyone healthy, so we
can hit the playoffs in full stride,”
said Yuill.
The men finished fourth last
season, and eventually lost to the
Carleton Ravens in the second
round of the playoffs.
We're starting
to see what we
want. We know
the task at hand.
It'll probably
come down to
the last week.
Ridgebacks coach, Curtis
Hodgins, thinks his men have a
chance, as the top eight teams from
each conference make the playoffs.
Hodgins is in his second year in
charge of the men’s team. He says
his team’s confidence isn’t high now,
but he hopes to see his team get into
the right mindset come the playoffs.
“All we’re worried about here is
playing the right kind of hockey and
getting that confidence back up,”
said Hodgins.
The men are not the only team
on the ice. The Ridgebacks women
have won four of their last six games.
The women have also had a season
of highs and lows. They lost
their first three games of the year,
and at one point, sat at 3-7.
However, they have been clawing
their way up the standings, and are
only one point behind Brock University.
This gives them a chance at
the eighth, and final, playoff spot in
their conference.
Women’s head coach, Justin
Caruana, says he’s happy with how
his team is playing, but he knows it
won’t be easy to make the playoffs.
“We’re starting to see what we
want,” said Caruana.” We know
the task at hand. It’ll probably come
down to the last week of the season.
We take care of ourselves and we
should be fine.”
The Adidas Cup won’t breed
overconfidence within the Lords,
Romain said.
“We constantly know that there
are things we need to improve on.
Although, as a team we know we
have the skills and abilities to do
what we need to do to win. But
there’s times that we know that we
need to do something to make it
even easier for us to go where we
need to go without getting overconfident.”
We have to turn
the switch on
in order to get
a little bit better
and to push and
compete against
the west teams.
Romain and Clarke both
stressed the need for the team to
remain grounded and to not let
their winning ways get to their
heads. Romain noted the importance
of making sure everyone goes
to practices, remembers to train,
and that everyone stays on top of
their school work.
While the Lords have had a
strong season up to this point, they
still have a long way to go before
the end of the season. Their next
game will be played on Jan. 26 at
home versus the Georgian Grizzlies
at 6 p.m. at the Campus Recreation
and Wellness Centre.
Lords dominate
at the beach
Joshua Nelson
The Chronicle
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 Chris Cameron, special
events coordinator for DC athletics.
The women’s team kicked off the
doubleheader with a 25-23 win in
the first set against Seneca. The
team then moved into the second
and third sets winning easily over
the Sting, 25-14 and 25-16.
“We have some good options offensively…we
have the experience
too... but we just need to get going
more and to keep pushing and I
think that with the experience,
that helps out,” said women's head
coach, Tony Clarke.
The Lords men’s team capped
off the night with a sweep over the
Sting, which improves its record to
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.
“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 John Pham, who
finished with 30 assists in his game.
“One of the things we have to
work with as the coaches for this
group of players is making sure that
we play for each other and that we
come together as a team,” 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.