There was no doubt that Saturday afternoon's matchup between the Nipissing Lakers men's volleyball team and the York Lions was a playoff-type match.

The two teams are battling for position in the extremely tight OUA East Division and at the end of the day, it was the Lions who moved up the standings after topping the Lakers 3-1.

Every set was within four points, proving the teams were both right there and a fortunate bounce away from taking each set and the match overall.

York opened up with a 25-22 victory before Nipissing responded to even things up.

With the score tied 21-21, the Lions scored four of the next five points and escaped the first set with a victory, kicking things off.

In the second set, it was the reverse of the first as the Lakers came up with a big victory, scoring four of the final five points to pull away and even things up.

In the third, things went down to the wire once again, but an early lead York built up had them in front for the majority of the set and gave them enough of a cushion at the end to secure the victory.

In the fourth and what turned out to be the final set, York led 23-19 late before the Lakers began to mount a comeback. They pulled the match within one, as the Lions led 24-23.

Nipissing was unable to fight back and extend the match, as they came up short in the fourth.

Lyndon Sonego led the Lakers with 16 kills, Steve Wood had 12 and Warren Taylor had 9 in today's battle.

The Lakers are now 8-4 on the season and in fourth place in the East, heading into the final three weekends of the season.

Nipissing faces McMaster and Brock on the road next weekend.