What happens when you enter the post-season as the fourth seed in your division, facing the OUA's top team, the five-time defending champions and favourite to win again?
You call yourself the underdog. And that's just fine with the Nipissing Lakers men's volleyball team.
The Lakers begin their playoff run this weekend when they travel to Hamilton to face the top-seeded McMaster Marauders Saturday in Round 1 of the OUA Forsyth Cup Playoffs, looking to punch their ticket to the Final Four the following weekend.
Nipissing enters the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the OUA, having won their past four matches, in the process, securing a spot in the post-season for the second straight year.
They actually finished with the fewest set losses in the OUA East Division, even fewer than Ryerson and York, who finished in first and second in the division.
In their lone matchup this season, the Lakers dropped a well-played and hard-fought decision to McMaster in four sets. The fourth set ended 30-28 in favour of the Marauders, as they claimed the victory.
Despite the loss, Nipissing gained a lot of confidence keeping pace and pushing the league's top team and giving them all they could handle.
And that was without a key piece of their lineup, as
Steve Wood was out with an injury at the time.
Cameron Branch, who had a monster season and recorded his 1,000th kill that match, finished with 18 kills against the Marauders.
Nipissing's depth has been a source of strength this season as well.
Three players averaged better than two points per game, with Branch and Wood leading the way.
On top of that, four players had at least 84 points during the season and three were over 140 during the team's 18 match regular season.
In comparison, McMaster had three players that hit the 200-point mark, with four topping the 88-point plateau.
In the second semester of the season, Nipissing went 7-4, with one of those losses coming to McMaster, while the Marauders went 9-1 in 2018.
The only two losses McMaster suffered came in Hamilton, while Nipissing's road record was just 3-4, however, they did win their final two match away from North Bay.
When looking just at the record, McMaster is the favourite, but digging deeper into the matchup, Nipissing is actually the better team when it comes to blocks and fewer errors and both teams are 90-plus when it comes to service aces.
With a mix of veterans and newcomers, the Lakers are poised to be the team to shock the OUA this weekend in Round 1 of the playoffs.
Underdogs? Yes. Ready for an upset? Absolutely.
Saturday's match is set for 8pm in Hamilton at the Burridge Gymnasium.
