It took five sets, but the Badgers maintained a perfect start to 2024 with a 3-2 win (25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13) over the Nipissing Lakers on Saturday, Jan. 13 in North Bay.
Outside hitter Kyler Code led all scorers with 16 points, which were all off kills. Devin Cooney, Jacob Ferland and KJ Robinson all hit double digits in the kills category as well. Veteran setter Grant Reddon facilitated the offence with 48 assists, while defensively, the Badgers were led by Code with seven digs.
in the first set, neither team was up to go up more than two points until Brock took a 15-13 lead. A Sauli Lianga kill and a double block from Ferland and Reddon helped Brock take a 24-21 advantage. Nipissing brought the set within one before Cooney rocketed a kill to give the Badgers a tight 25-23 first set win.
The Badgers came out firing in the second, going on a 6-1 run. Nipissing kept chipping away, relying on some strong attacking and some Brock hitting errors to even things up at 9-9. The Lakers battled through a small deficit to go up 17-13 and didn’t look back, taking the set 25-21. The two teams were even in kills with 10, but the Lakers outhit the Badgers percentage wise .294 to .087.
In a reversal from the second set, it was the Lakers who got out to an early lead 10-7. The Badgers showed their resilience, fighting back to tie it up at 15-15 off strong serving from Kaleb Robinson. An ace from Cooney along with some attack errors from Nipissing caused the Brock lead to swell to 23-19, forcing Nipissing’s second timeout. The Badgers took it 25-21 off a strong .500 hitting percentage.
The Badgers doubled up the Lakers at 10-5 as service aces continued to play a major factor in the contest. The Lakers made a run of their own to go up 20-18, leading to a Brock timeout. Once again, the Badgers kept fighting, reducing the scoreline to one, down 23-22. It was not enough, as Nipissing scored two consecutive the points to force a fifth set.
In the final frame, Attack errors put Nipissing in a 6-3 hole, which led to an early timeout. Though the Badgers held a four-point advantage multiple times in the set, the Lakers did not go away. The home side made the scoreline 14-12, which forced head coach Ian Eibbitt to call a timeout. Coming out of the break, Nipissing scored again to bring the game to within one. However, Brock held strong, taking the win as Robinson rose up to notch a kill for the team’s 15th point.
Up next, the Badgers (10-2) return to action on Friday, Jan. 19 in Windsor against the Windsor Lancers (6-3). You can watch the game on OUA.tv.