If you ask the Nipissing Lakers women's volleyball team, they'll tell you they're happy, but not satisfied.

And that's because their goal, which will come at the end of the season, has not been accomplished yet, but they have put themselves in a favourable position to be successful down the stretch.

With the second half of the season beginning this weekend, with a home game against Trent, the Lakers will look to build off a solid first half of the year and push towards the playoffs.

Lakers head coach Marc LaRochelle said his team had a goal in mind right from the beginning of the season and it remains the same at this point.

"The objective from the beginning of the season was to challenge for a playoff position in the very competitive East division. We always felt that we had the talent to do so, but needed a shift in our culture," he said. "I give the captains and players a lot of credit for not only accepting the challenge, but actually creating positive change and developing a very strong team culture.

"Hard work, determination, perseverance and a team first mentality has led to positive results on and off the court," LaRochelle added.

Sitting with a 4-3 record which has them in fourth in the East, just two points back of third with a game in hand on York and four points back with two games in hand on Ryerson, the Lakers have themselves positioned well for the next step.

Saturday begins the 2017 portion of the season which see the Lakers play 12 home matches, six of which are at home.

Prior to this weekend and their first game of the second semester, the Lakers hit the road and travelled to Humber to take part in an exhibition tournament, along with a number of CCAA and USports teams.

LaRochelle said the results weren't particularly important, but it was more about getting the rust off and back into game action.

"It was great to get back into the swing of things at the Humber tournament. We were a little shorthanded, however, this created some opportunity for players to gain some valuable experience. We were understandably a little rusty, but it certainly gave us a direction in terms of some training points for the second half," LaRochelle noted.

With just seven matches in the first half and 12 in the second, the Lakers will be far busier this time around, but they're prepared for that – both physically and mentally.

The coaching staff and athletes know it will be a little bit different, playing more frequently, but based on the success in the first semester, they should be in good shape.

"We have a significant amount of matches in the second half, so it will be a very physically demanding semester. In order for our team to continue our progression we will need to take what we learned in the first half, gain some confidence and remain determined to get better every day," LaRochelle explained. "As a group we feel we haven't yet reached our full potential and we remain determined to accomplish our goals.

"It will be an exciting journey to see what this group accomplish," he added.

The Lakers hit the court for a single home match this Saturday at 5pm at the RJS Athletic Centre.