You almost could have scripted a better start to the second half of the season for the Nipissing Lakers women's volleyball team.

After a first half that unfortunately saw more downs than ups, the Lakers came to play against the Ryerson Rams to begin the 2016 portion of the schedule.

After leading 1-0 and 2-1, Nipissing was unable to close the match out, losing in five well played, competitive sets.

Entering the match, the Rams had only lost once and just four sets all season, but Nipissing came out flying, controlling the early part of the match.

Thanks to a solid attack and the usual strong defence the Lakers play, they took the first set 26-24 to kick things off the right way.

Ryerson showed why they are one of the top teams in the second half, bouncing back to pick up a 25-21 victory, but the Lakers didn't make it easy on them, fighting back a number of times to close the gap, but they were unable to pull ahead.

With the match tied 1-1, Nipissing once again played some of their best volleyball, coming out on the right end of a 25-20 set, going up 2-1 and putting themselves in a position to pull off the upset.

The Rams weren't going to allow that to happen, however, as they again fought back to tie the match, winning 25-19.

With the match even at 2-2, the fifth set truly went back and forth.

Nipissing held a slight lead at the technical timeout before the Rams storm back to grab a lead of their own.

Nipissing fought back to tie the set at 10, but Ryerson took control from there and finished things off with a 15-11 victory in the final set.

The results don't show what a great effort the Lakers put in, but they kicked off the second semester with arguably their best and most complete match of the season.

Leading the Lakers offensively were Erika Lapierre who had a monster match with 21 kills.

Tracy Hammerton chipped in with 11 and Victoria Willars added eight over the five sets.

Carley Uden, who hadn't started many matches this season, was very solid as the Lakers setter, picking up 43 assists.

Nipissing is back on the court against the top ranked Toronto Varsity Blues at noon Saturday.