TORONTO, Ont. – It's been a perfect start to the season for the Durham College women's volleyball team as they hit the halfway point on Wednesday night.
 
The Lords improved to 9-0 after defeating the Seneca Sting 3-0.
 
Their straight set victory started by opening the first 25-16.
 
After a dominant 25-13 second set, Durham found themselves down 7-5 early in the third.
 
Eventually they battled back to tie the set 13-13 before taking a 15-14 lead. Unfortunately after going on a run that saw them lead by six points, the Lords found themselves up only 22-21. Seneca tied it up 23-23 again before back-to-back points gave Durham a 25-23 third set victory.
 
Allison Marshall (Orillia, Ont.) had a match-high 13 points for Durham in the win, which included 10 kills, two aces and a block.  Defensively she only trailed the nine digs by libero Brier Kaake (Whitby, Ont.), finishing the match with six.
 
The OCAA leader in service aces per set with 0.85 going into Wednesday, Shannon Dean (Whitby, Ont.), finished with three in three sets against Seneca. She also picked up seven kills and a block.
 
Other notable performances came from Oshawa's Lucia Kalmeyer who finished with 10 kills, an ace and a block, while Jessica Joensen (Pickering, Ont.) had eight kills.
 
All of – well most of – Durham's offence was run by setter Megan Romain (Ajax, Ont.) who had 28 assists. She also continued to cause trouble from the service line with two aces and at the net picked up a block.
 
Crystalyn O'Donnell picked up 10 kills in the loss, alongside an ace for a team-high 11 points for Seneca.
 
With the semester now completed, Marshall finishes the opening half of the year as the team's kill leader with 3.16 per set and team's points leader with 4.1 per set. Dean leads the squad with 13 blocks over nine matches and 25 aces (0.86 per set).
 
The Lords will now take a break until the Adidas Cup on Jan. 6-7 at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre. The schedule will be posted on the Durham Lords website once it has been finalized.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE LORDS
Overall Record: 15-3
Conference Record: 9-0
 
Next match: Adidas Cup • Jan. 6-7 • CRWC