For the second consecutive weekend in a row the Redeemer Royals went 0-4 in league play and are now a combined 3-11 to start the 2014-2015 OCAA season. The Royals Basketball teams dropped a pair of contests on the road to rival Mohawk, while the Volleyball teams couldn't hold off a duo of surging Niagara teams at home. Despite the difficult start, there is still a very positive outlook for both volleyball and basketball programs for the current season and plenty of time to steer the course in the right direction.

The Lady Royals volleyball team is 2-2 with their losses coming at the hands of the #5 ranked team in Canada (Humber) and the #15 ranked team (Niagara). The women's team still does occupy the #6 ranked place in Ontario and boasts a starting lineup that includes two OCAA All-Stars in Curtiss Straatsma (Brampton, ON) and Charlene De Vries (London, ON).

Both Devries (18 points) and Straatsma (15 points) put up game-high numbers on Friday night against the Knights and both players continue to creep towards the top of the leaderboard in points per game.

The Royals will look to turn things around right away on Wednesday as they hope to put a stop to their 2 game slide against the Fanshawe Falcons. Fanshawe sits at 1-2 with a win against Conestoga and losses against Humber and Mohawk.

The Lady Royals have an automatic bye into the Provincial Championship as the host of the event.

On the Men's side, after winning their season opener against Conestoga on October 21, the Royals have gone winless. The streak hit 3 games on Friday as their struggles continued against  Niagara. Redeemer's other defeats were against the top ranked Humber Hawks and the undefeated Sheridan Bruins.

Redeemer veteran Eric Heidbuurt (Waterdown, ON) had an impressive 16 kills on Friday night and continues to be in the top 5 in the OCAA in points per game. The Royals will rely on Heidbuurt to continue his strong start to the season to bring Redeemer back into the win column this upcoming week.

It has been a tough schedule for Redeemer to begin the season but playing in the OCAA West has a guarantee of ups and downs and on any given night, anyone can win with such a competitive group of opponents.

The Men's team also travels to Fanshawe on Wednesday to square off against the 1-2 Falcons. Like the Royals, Fanshawe's one win came against Conestoga.

The Men's Basketball team has started their season 0-3 but has arguably had the most difficult schedule in the OCAA to begin the season. Redeemer's opponents (Humber, Fanshawe, Mohawk) in their first 3 games have a combined record of 11 wins and 2 losses, with one of the defeats coming against each other. While no game is easy for the Royals, the load should lighten a bit for Redeemer over the next month as the team will look to get right back into the playoff hunt.

The next 4 games for Redeemer includes St. Clair, Lambton, and Sault College (back-to-back). Those teams have a combined record of 4 wins and 7 losses. The stretch for the Royals will be one of the most important set of matches on the calendar for Redeemer in 2014.

With impact players Jacob Walda (Woodstock, ON) and Nathan Di Loreto (London, ON) (returned Friday night) set to return back to the team in November after being away as a result of injuries, Redeemer will finally have their full complement of players heading into a busy month. Walda and Di Loreto will look to join the strong trio of John Woldue (London, ON) (15.0 PPG), Calvin Turnbull (Burlington, ON) (17.5 PPG), and Josh de Schiffert (Strathroy, ON) (19.5 PPG) who are all averaging over 15 points per game.

The Lady Royals Basketball team has arguably had almost as difficult of an opening stretch as the Men's team. Battleing injuries and a short bench, Redeemer is 0-3 to start the season having faced the 4-0 Fanshawe Falcons, 5-1 Humber Hawks, and 2-1 Mohawk Mountaineers.

Like the Men's team, Redeemer will have an important stretch of 4 games coming up over the next two weeks. Lady Royal Lindsay Moffatt (Hamilton, ON) sits 3rd in the OCAA in points per game at 18.5 and will look to lead the young team against St. Clair, Lambton, and back-to-back games against Sault College in the critical set of games. Their upcoming opponents have a combined record of 2-9 with both Lambton and Sault also sitting winless at this point in the season.

Moffatt had 18 points on Friday night against Mohawk while Kayla Suriani (Hamilton, ON) had a team high 20 points.