The Nipissing Lakers women's volleyball team knew they still had a long road ahead of them to catch the top schools in the OUA, but they certainly didn't expect this start.

In another hard fought match, the Lakers came up short, losing 3-0 to the RMC Paladins on home court Saturday night, pushing their start to 0-4 early in the OUA season.

Playing from behind for too much of the match, Nipissing used much of their energy catching up and were unable to push the pace.

In the opening set, RMC walked away with a 25-17 victory to get ahead and grab the advantage.

Unfortunately it was a similar story in the second and third sets, with the scores and overall play being quite similar.

In the middle set, the Paladins won 25-19 and they closed out the match with a 25-16 win, despite the Lakers holding a 13-10 midway through.

The challenges were and are still there in the OUA, in a very tough division, but the Lakers are still trying to find their footing at this point.

With 15 games left on the schedule, there is time, however, things need to turn around sooner rather than later.

Annabelle Harvey had six kills, while Cassie Dobson and Erika Lapierre posted five each for the Lakers.

Nipissing plays just one match next weekend, as they host the York Lions Saturday afternoon at the RJS Athletic Centre.