Colts Run Out of Horsepower Against Huskies

The men's team poses in their Movember shirts just before tip off against the George Brown Huskies on Thursday night. (Nicole Ventura/Colts Media)
The men's team poses in their Movember shirts just before tip off against the George Brown Huskies on Thursday night. (Nicole Ventura/Colts Media)

By: Kajan Thiruthanikasalam

SCARBOROUGH, ONT.- After an incredible comeback victory on Remembrance Day against the Canadore Panthers in five sets, the Centennial Colts were looking to win consecutive games for the first time this season as they faced off against their rival George Brown Huskies at the Athletic and Wellness Centre.

It looked like that was going to happen as the Colts took a 2-1 set lead but the Huskies took control of the next two sets as Centennial fell to George Brown in five sets (25-20, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-9).

With the loss, the Colts fall below .500 at 2-3. The Huskies, meanwhile, move back to .500 at 3-3 with the win. It was also Centennial's first loss in a five set match this season after winning the previous two.

LEADING SCORERS

Jason Fillion led all scorers with a season high 17 points (16 kills, ace) while Javed Baksh had 16 (12 kills, ace, 3 blocks) and Bryan Brown dropped 13 (12 kills, ace).

Jaydeep Patel paced all players with 23 digs while Matthew Wallace had a game high 41 assists in defeat.

Vivek Mathimakki led a spread out George Brown attack with 14 points (11 kills, 3 blocks) and was tied with teammate Perry Kumi (10 points) with a game high three blocks. Yuseph Jackman finished with a game high three aces in the win.

GAME STATS

One look at the boxscore makes it seem like Centennial dominated this game as they outpaced George Brown in kills (53-39), assists (45-33), and digs (54-42). However, more errors on the attack (29-21) and serve (17-8) proved to be costly for the Colts; the Huskies also had an 8-4 edge in blocks.

COLTS CARES

The men's team were wearing their Movember shirts during warmups in a tribute to raising awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide.

GAME PLAY BY PLAY

Fillion had five points in that first set as Centennial scored the first seven points to start off the game and never looked back, eventually winning the set, 25-20, despite a late push from George Brown.

Baksh and Fillion each had four points in the second set but errors and a balanced attack from the Huskies, which included a 13-4 run at one point, proved to be too much to overcome for the Colts as they dropped the set, 25-19.

Brown scored six points, all of them coming in kills, in the third set as Centennial overcame a four point deficit and fought tooth and nail with the Huskies to go up two sets to one with a 25-23 set win.

The Huskies' balanced scoring was evident in the fourth set as they had three separate runs of three consecutive points or more (4-0, 3-0, 3-0) to force the match into a tiebreaker as they took the fourth set by a score of 25-19.

Four straight points from George Brown to start off the set forced Colts head coach David Ta to call time and the home side scored five of the next six possible points to tie the set up at five.

But despite three points each in the set from Baksh and Fillion, the Huskies scored six unanswered points to effectively take control, eventually wrapping up the match by a score of 15-9 in the tiebreaking set after a loud kill from Jackman.

CATCH OUR NEXT GAME

The Colts look to wrap up their home portion of the first half of the season with a win against the Fleming Knights on Saturday at 2:00pm.