THE NEXT 100

After winning their 100th straight women's volleyball OCAA regular and post-season match, the Humber Hawks have begun their march towards 200, winning in straight sets against Boréal and Cambrian in Sudbury, Ont.

The Hawks have also won 11 straight sets, having dropped just only four all season. The eight-time defending OCAA champions are a victory away from clinching the west regional championship outright, having already secured its spot at OCAA provincials with (at worst) a second-place bye. Humber is 14-0 with four regular season matches remaining.

Humber's biggest tests before the OCAA championship is road matches against Redeemer and Fanshawe the next two Saturdays. Redeemer (8-6) has won four straight matches, while Fanshawe (11-4) is in second place, the only team that can catch the Hawks should they falter. Given Humber's 102 straight victories, a four-game losing streak is not likely to happen.

HOW THE EAST WAS WON

With Humber looking poised to wrap up the west title, two teams are jockeying for top spot in the east region. Conveniently, these teams meet on Sunday.

Durham (16-1) has won a dozen straight, having already secured a bye into provincials by virtue of its guaranteed top-two finish. So has Canadore (15-2), by virtue of it being host of this year's OCAA championship.

When these teams last met on Nov. 14, Canadore won in straight sets. Durham hasn't lost a match since. Canadore has lost to Georgian and Trent, both on the road.

Sunday's winner will virtually (if not literally) be the east regional champions. But with nothing to lose in terms of a spot in the OCAA quarter-finals, each team should be loose in this ultimate end-of-season litmus test.

KILLER INSTINCT

Another all-time OCAA career record is about to fall.

Redeemer fifth-year left side Curtiss Straatsma (Brampton) is seven kills away from setting a new all-time kills record, closing in on Shawna Metcalf's mark of 960 achieved with Cambrian from 2009 to 2013.

With four matches remaining, Straatsma has an outside shot at 1,000, a significant milestone if she can average 11.5 kills per match.

She already holds the all-time points record, now at an even 1,300. Straatsma broke Metcalf's previous mark of 1,239 back on Jan. 9.

MO-ANUARY

The Mohawk Mountaineers flexed their muscles during the month of January, playing to a 4-2 record.

Mohawk upset Cambrian (8-7) in five sets, and Fanshawe in four, two teams ahead of the Mountaineers in the standings. Mohawk can ruin Sheridan's post-season ambitions with another victory this Saturday. Sheridan is one game out of playoff position at 7-8.

While mathematically still alive in the playoff hunt, Mohawk will likely need the mother of all upsets against Humber on Feb. 10 to make this dream a reality. Still, for a team that at one time this season dropped seven straight matches, the Mountaineers have plenty of positives to build on in the month of February and beyond.

RECENT RESULTS

UPCOMING GAMES

Source: OCAA Communications