NORTH YORK, Ont. - There's a new leader in the OCAA East Division and it's the Seneca Sting.

In a showdown of the top two teams in the division, the Seneca Sting hosted the previously unbeaten Durham Lords Friday night in the Newnham Gym. In front of a rowdy crowd, the Sting sent their fans home happy and the Lords home with their first loss of the regular season.

In convincing fashion, Seneca dominated the Lords in kills and digs while holding a slight edge in blocks. It was a great all-around effort for a team who entered the season with high expectations, but dragged through the exhibition season to a 6-5 record.

The Sting dismantled the Lords in the first set 25-17, a set which saw the Sting hold a 23-11 lead before letting some rallies get away late in the set. Vladyslav Danyliuk played big at the net, constantly finding the seams in the defence with his offensive attacks.

Durham made strides in the second set towards keeping their record unblemished. They kept the Sting off-balance throughout the set mainly by setter Riley McAllister dumping a number of balls on second touch. Seneca's defence could not find an answer before Bradley Van Hartingsweldt finished off a number of rallies with kills for a 25-19 set victory.

The third and fourth sets showed the potential this Sting team has as their middles Jordan Darlington and Nick Coleman controlled the net with powerful kills and crowd-raising blocks.  Controlling the offence was setter Matt Handley who also had two blocks on the night. Seneca rolled in the final two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-16

Danyliuk and Matt McGirr let the Seneca offence with 13 kills each while Darlington was not far behind with 12. Darlington finished with five blocks while Coleman added three. McGirr led the team with 17 digs while libero Gabriel Harrietha had 16 on the evening.

Durham was led by Hartingsweldt who had 10 kills with Steven Clarey adding seven. Craig Lush and McAllister each added three blocks while Dan Popovic controlled the backcourt with 15 digs.

The Seneca Sting (9-1) will host the Loyalist Lancers (4-4) on Wednesday, January 9 at 8 p.m. while the Durham Lords (8-1) will host Loyalist (4-4) next Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Source: Seneca College