By: Kajan Thiruthanikasalam
SCARBOROUGH, ONT.- The men's volleyball team were fresh off of a season opening victory in what was a heated battle against the Durham Lords on Saturday afternoon.
Yet this is still a young and relatively inexperienced Colts squad. And it showed as they ran into the buzzsaw that was the Georgian Grizzlies.
Centennial were dispatched in straight sets by the Grizzlies (25-19, 25-15, 25-20) at the Athletic and Wellness Centre, as Darien Haynes led all scorers with 13 points on eight kills.
Liam Gray had a game high 30 assists and three aces for Georgian in the win as the Grizzlies outpaced the Colts in kills (34-18), assists (31-17) and aces (8-1).
Timothy Ho led Centennial with nine points and had a game high five blocks while Jaydeep Patel led all players with seven digs in the loss. Matthew Wallace dished out 15 assists for the Colts.
Consecutive aces from Gray got the Grizzlies started off as they led by as many as six points and the visitors eventually took the first set, 25-19; Haynes had four kills and an ace during that span.
In the second set, Haynes stood out once again, adding another four points to his total as the Grizzlies thoroughly outclassed the home side, winning the second set, 25-15.
The third set saw both teams play their benches but the result was the same as Georgian continued to pile it on, going up by as many as nine points (17-8) but a positive that came out of that set for Centennial was Patel's play as he had three kills and the team's only ace in that span.
Centennial chipped the deficit down to four but an attack error by Baksh effectively sealed the game as the Grizzlies took the third set, 25-20, and the match.
CATCH OUR NEXT GAME
The Colts look to bounce back into the win column as they have seven days off before facing off against the Seneca Sting on the road on Wednesday Oct. 31 at 8:00pm.