Clippers sail past Knights at CCAA volleyball championships

Tamara Edwards is enjoying the opportunity to play for a national championship in her home gym.

Game 2 of that adventure came Friday afternoon at Niagara College when the host Knights dropped a 3-0 decision (25-18, 25-18 and 25-15) to the Briercrest College Clippers in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association volleyball championships. Niagara fell to 0-2 with the loss and will play in the seventh-place game Saturday at 2 p.m.

“It’s definitely very exciting and the atmosphere has been great so far,” the 19-year-old Vineland resident said. “But these teams are very high energy, high intensity and we have to match that as much as possible.”

The Eden graduate is soaking up the eye-opening experience.

“It’s the level of play,” the second-year of sports management student said. “These teams are very strong and sometimes we don’t see that in the OCAA (Ontario Colleges Athletic Association) and we have to try and match that.

“It’s a super great learning experience for us to get this level of play with VIU (Vancouver Island University) and this team.”

Niagara, the OCAA silver medalist, wasn’t expecting it to be easy Friday.

“We knew that they were a good strong team with a lot of great athletes, but we did expect more fight and a close game,” Edwards said. “All we can do is try our best and at the end of the day, it is a good learning experience for us.

“We are so thankful to be able to play in this tournament and we’re hoping this will help us in the OCSAAs as well.”

Niagara coach Natasha Spaling described Friday’s encounter as tougher than her team’s opening match.

“We made way too many unforced errors, we didn’t force them to play enough on their side of the net and we didn’t stick too our game plan,” she said.

Spaling pointed to a couple of things to explain her team’s performance Friday.

“It’s tough at times, when different parts of your game are breaking down, to stick to your game plan and it’s nationals,” she said. “It’s a lot, we have a pretty young team and it is getting used to the calibre of play and having to play multiple days on a row.”

Spaling is relying on players like Edwards at the nationals.

“Tamara is a leader on our team and she is definitely one of our most experienced players,” she said. “We’ve rely on her to provide leadership on the court and she has improved a ton this season.”

Edwards feels she has made steady progress in her game at Niagara.

“I am more involved in the play this year,” she said. “Last year, our play was based on the outside and I was more of a blocker. My goal for this year was to be up and attacking more and being an offensive threat as well as a blocking threat for my team.”

Spaling agrees with that assessment.

“We worked pretty hard on that this year getting her to transition and be available in the offence more,” she said. “She has worked really hard to be available for our setters.”

Edwards has one more year left in her program and she’s looking to get even better next season.

“I want to improve my vertical (jump) so I can be higher on blocks and get those touches for my team.”

The Canadian championships at Niagara have been a bit of a classroom away for the court for Edwards. She wants to get involved in the event management side of things in sports.

“Some day I would love to be running this kind of tournament,” she said. “That would be my goal.”

Spaling’s goal for Saturday is for her team to play its best in the seventh-place game.

“We have a team dinner tonight, we will regroup and tomorrow we will come out and have a good last game.”

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