Koslowski ends Niagara College career in style
The Niagara Knights’ appearance in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association women’s volleyball championships came to a fitting conclusion Saturday afternoon in their home gym.
Playing the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics in the seventh-place game, graduating fourth-year senior Jordan Koslowski ended the match with a kill to give Niagara a 3-1 (16-25, 25-23, 25-17 and 30-28) victory.
The Hamilton native, a former All-Canadian, is merely the program’s all-time leader in points, kills and matches played.
“I couldn’t have painted it any better,” Niagara head coach Natasha Spaling said. “I am so proud of her — an incredible athlete but an even more incredible young woman.
“Man is she going to do some great things.”
Koslowski was delighted to have a chance to finish off the game.
“That was a nice touch,” she said.
The 2018-19 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Second Team All-Star was remarkably composed as her collegiate career came to a conclusion.
“It was definitely emotional today because I have been here for four years and today was my last game,” the 5-foot-8 outside hitter said. “I was glad it got to be at home with all my fans and family here.”
Present for the game were her parents, Shawn and Chris, and grandmother, Marlene Marshall. Shawn joked that he was more emotional than his daughter.
“They have been a huge part of my career,” she said. “They have been here for every game and they’ve tried to make it out to away games.”
The Sherwood Secondary School graduate wasn’t guaranteeing she would remain as composed when she got together with her teammates after the game.
“As soon as I get in the change room, it will be emotional because there are a couple of other girls who are leaving too and I have played with a couple of them for a while.
“It will be pretty sad to say goodbye.”
The former Mountain Volleyball Club travel player pointed to her All-Canadian season in 2016-17 as her career highlight. That season, she led OCAA West in scoring and set Niagara records for single season points and single game kills. For efforts, she was named the college’s female athlete of the year.
“It was that and meeting all these great girls because they are my family,” she said. “We always support each other as a team.”
The graduate of the Police Foundations Program and post grad student in Advance Law Enforcement and Investigations will be pursuing a career as a police officer.
“Eventually I am going to start applying for that and maybe one day I will come out and coach,” she said.
Her coach was happy to see Niagara conclude the Canadian championships with a victory after opening with losses to Vancouver Island University and Briercrest College.
“It’s the huge for the next step in our program, the development of our team and confidence of our team,” Spaling said. “Not many teams get to win their last game of the season and it feels great.”
Spaling knows exactly what she wants that next step to be.
“The next step is to keep building and pushing and earning our way to nationals next year,” she said. “Hopefully if and when we are there, we have that experience on the floor of athletes who have won a game at nationals.
“It will hopefully install more confidence in our team, our system and the process we are creating.”
Championship convenor Ray Sarkis was pleased with how the event came off.
“It has been great,” he said. “The competition has been outstanding and I am really proud of everything that has happened here this week, from the banquet all the way though, everything has been excellent.
“The support these athletes have received from their families and friends which have travelled with them has been great.”
For most of the matches, the bleachers have been quite full of spectators.
“I wasn’t really sure how it would go,” Sarkis said. “We hosted in 2013/14 with the men’s and overall I didn’t think it would be this good.”
The championships last three days, but the planning involved a much longer time period.
“We have been planning this since last spring,” he said, adding a lot of the heavy lifting was done by a 12-member committee.
The committee has been helped by the Niagara student body.
“We had more than 60 students help and that’s important too,” Sarkis said. “Without them, we would be lost. They are very important to us.”
Many of the students in various programs at the college got real-world experience helping out at the event.
“That’s what it is about and that is why they are here with their programs.” he said.
Hosting the championships is a lot of work, but it’s all worth it in Sarkis’ eyes.
“It promotes the college and puts Niagara on the map every time we host, it’s a great experience for our students and we have outstanding facilities to host such events,” he said. “It showcases what we have here at the college in every way, shape and form.
Coverage of the Niagara Knights is made possible with the support of the Niagara College Department of Athletics & Recreation. For more information, please visit www.goknights.ca
