Oct. 21 Niagara College report

Logan Lammerant carded rounds of 74, 76 and 71 to tie for fifth at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association golf championships in Sorel-Tracy, Que.

With the finish, he was named a First Team CCAA All-Star.

The Seaforth native qualified for the Canadians as an individual after shooting rounds of 75, 72 and 72 at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association championships in Kingston.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Niagara College’s women’s soccer team advanced to the OCAA quarter-finals with a 3-2 victory over St. Lawrence College.

The Knights grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first half on goals from captain Michelle Maecker (Fonthill), Terin Hultink (Fenwick) and Katelyn Mix before hanging on in the second half.

Veteran keeper Taylor Major stopped six shots in the first half and 12 more in the second to record the victory.

“I thought the team battled so hard today,” Major said. “We were able to keep our composure and play our game.”

Head coach Rob Lalama is excited to return to the OCAA championships this season after losing 2-1 in the quarter-finals last year to Durham.

“It’s a great feeling to be returning to the OCAA championship,” he said. “We came out strong against SLC. Our only mistake was not capitalizing on all the chances we created.

“In the second half, our keeper Taylor Major was spectacular in securing the win. She was our player of the match.”

Niagara’s concluded the regular season with a 5-2-2 record, following a 4-0 victory over the Redeemer Royals.

Hultink scored a hat trick for Niagara to push her season’s total to seven and Mix notched her fourth goal of the season.

Back-up keeper Sierra Naccarato earned the shutout in her first start of the season between the pipes.

“Last night was a big night for us,” Naccarato said. “I think we came in eager and excited and put forward an amazing 90 minutes. Going into post season, it was extremely important that we played with the same energy and drive that we’ve developed throughout the season, and last night we did just that.”

Lalama was pleased with the effort.

“I challenged our team this week to raise the bar,” he said. “I felt we should have even higher expectations. I felt we did that tonight and got quality performances from everyone, especially Terin who was on a mission tonight.”

Niagara moves on to play defending champion Fanshawe (8-0-1) Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the OCAA quarter-finals. Niagara lost 6-0 to Fanshawe in the regular season.

MEN’S SOCCER

Niagara’s men’s soccer team saw its season come to an end with a 3-1 loss to the Algonquin Thunder (7-1 in league play).

The Knights’ lone goal was scored by Delmar Rodolfe.

Niagara finished the regular season at 3-6 following a 5-0 shutout of the Redeemer Royals.

Fifth-year team captain Andrew Currie had big night, scoring twice in his final game at Youngs Sportsplex.

“Before tonight, I only had three goals over my five-year career with Niagara. Now I’ve got two in one night,” Currie said. “A great way to end my final game here.”

Chavon Wellington also netted two for Niagara and Oti Frigole (Governor Simcoe) potted his seventh goal of the season. Goalkeeper Romario James earned his first shutout of the season.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Niagara’s men’s basketball team opened the OCAA regular season with a pair of losses, falling 84-75 to the Lambton Lions and 83-65 to the St. Clair Saints.

Leading the way for Niagara against Lambton were: Lequan Hylton, 29 points, including six three-point field goals; Stephone Augustin, 13 points and 11 rebounds; Johnnie Richardson (Saint Paul), 11 points; Jordon McDonald, 12 rebounds; and, Kevin Cooper, 10 rebounds.

“We are still attempting to establish consistency in our team defence and limit unforced turnovers,” Niagara head coach Phil Mosley said. “We will continue to work hard and get better in all facets of the game.

Performing well for the Knights in the loss to St. Clair were: Hylton, 25 points; Rahim Bardi (Governor Simcoe), 15 points; McDonald, 12 rebounds; and, Augustin, 11 rebounds.

“We are battling with consistency and establishing our identity as a team,” Mosley said. “I believe in this group and I am confident they will continue to put in the work to grow as a team.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Niagara’s women’s basketball team also opened the OCAA regular season with a pair of losses, falling 89-43 to the Lambton Lions and 78-51 to the St. Clair Saints.

Performing well for Niagara against Lambton were: Beth deBoer (Eden), 10 points; Francine Smith (Denis Morris), seven points; Samantha Kawn, seven points; and, Mackenzie Schroeder (Eden), five points and five boards.

Head coach Chris Rao took the loss as a learning opportunity for what it takes to play at this level.

“It was a real welcome to the OCAA West moment for most of us,” Rao said. “For our players, it was an introduction to playing against that level of effort.

“It was a new experience and something we have to handle better in the future. Hopefully we can learn how much the details matter and follow through on what we are trying to do.”

Leading the way for the Knights versus St. Clair were: Jessyka Maliski, 14 points; Kaisen MacKinnon, 13 points; Schroeder, seven points and five rebounds; and, Kawn, nine rebounds.

“Our effort was much improved and I was pleased with how hard we played,” Rao said. “St. Clair, like Lambton, is a very well-coached team with some talented players. I felt that we forced St. Clair to make harder plays than we did last night.”

Niagara struggled with its offence.

“We shot terribly, but if we continue to move forward with these kinds of efforts we give ourselves a chance to be competitive in a lot of games,” he said.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Niagara’s women’s volleyball team opened the season with wins against Cambrian (3-2) and Boreal (3-0).

The win against Cambrian made new head coach Steve Dow a winner in his debut.

“It’’s always tough to spend the day on the bus and then have to play, let alone another teams home opener,” Dow said. “Cambrian plays with a lot of energy and forced us to play up to a high standard.”

He was happy with the victory.

“We didn’t play our best volleyball, but Cambrian is a team built on tough serving and strong defending and it gave us fits,” he said. “With that being said, I have a ton of respect for the resiliency our girls showed to not give up when things looked bleak and push through to get our first win of the year.”

Dow is delighted to start the season undefeated.

“I am really pleased with the complete game effort our team showed,” he said. “We played another home opener with a team that plays scrappy defence. We responded well and cleaned up a lot of our offence from the night before.”

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Niagara’s men’s volleyball team also went 2-0, sweeping both Cambrian and Boreal.

Elijah Bugiardini led Niagara versus Cambrian with 14 kills.

“I thought we kept up our intensity and focus throughout the game and it was good to see that type of energy from the group,” head coach Tommy Sloan said. “We know that creating a certain type of personality is going to be important for us and this was a step in the right direction.”

Niagara started slowly against Boreal, falling behind early in the first set.

“After going down 16-11, a good serving run by Ashton Fehr along with some improved blocking allowed us to finish on a 14-4 run to take the set,” Sloan said. “We settled down nicely in the second set as our offence woke up to go along with another great serving run by Fehr.”

Middle Ashton Fehr had a strong match against Boreal with four kills, four aces, one block, three digs and two massive serving runs of eight and 10 in a row.