The Lions men’s volleyball team routed the Windsor Lancers and Western Mustangs over the past weekend as they kicked off their 2015 regular season. The Lions defeated the Lancers by a score of 3-1 at Tait McKenzie Centre on Friday afternoon, and the Lions put down the Mustangs by a score of 3-2 the following day.
“I feel that the games we played this weekend have shown the coaches, my teammates and I, and especially other Ontario University Athletics teams that we can compete and even dominate,” says Arthur Szwarc.
Members of the York community were there to see it as well. “Volleyball hasn’t ever really been a popular sport here at York,” says Szwarc, “but even at our home opener, we all noticed a lot more fans than last year.” He hopes to see that kind of support throughout the season.
A second-year outside hitter for the Lions, Szwarc excelled on the court in both games. He recorded five kills and nine blocks on Friday and 16 kills, two aces, and nine blocks on Saturday. He was supported by team captain Alexander Duncan-Thibault, a fourth-year veteran among a group of talented but relatively young and inexperienced players.
In his rookie season last year, Szwarc performed exceptionally well, earning OUA all-rookie team honours before making a name for himself on the national stage. He was named to the Canadian U21 team, and represented Canada in the off-season at the International University Sports Federation Games in South Korea and the U21 International Volleyball Federation World Championship in Mexico.
He believes that knowing someone with that kind of experience is on one’s team “gives everyone a mental boost, but more importantly, an offensive boost.” And offence, he says, is the team’s greatest strength.
Moving forward, Szwarc identifies the team’s lack of experience as an obstacle that they will have to overcome to achieve their goals. “We are a younger team,” he says. “This puts us at a disadvantage when facing the older teams. They have more experience.”
However, the team has a lot of momentum to carry over into their regular season. Last year, they finished fourth in OUA standings and won the OUA bronze medal. They then made it to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship tournament for the first time since 2005. In this year’s preseason they went 5-6 and won the silver medal at a tournament hosted by Humber College.
And as of Saturday, the Lions are one of only two teams in the OUA so far with a 2-0 record in the regular season. After such a successful opening weekend, Szwarc knows that other OUA teams will be targeting the Lions as a team to take down. “We accept the challenges and look forward to facing every team,” he says.
“Most importantly, this weekend has been a good confidence booster for all of us, and gets us the winning feeling, which then gets us closer to our main goal: nationals.”
Hassam Munir, Sports and Health Editor
