By Caio Miari
Less than 24 hours after collecting their first win of the season, the Centennial Colts men's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 (16-25, 19-25, 21-25) home loss to the Algonquin Thunder Saturday night.
The Colts' (1-2) second defeat of the season came after an impressive all-around performance by the visitors.
"The quality of the teams," said head coach Adriana Bento on what was the most significant difference between Centennial's Friday (vs. La Cite) and Saturday matchups. "They (Algonquin) finished plays consistently; they didn't make mistakes. If you look for how many mistakes they had, it was minimum."
Bento also saw a below-average performance by her team.
"(My players) were out of gas; they were exhausted. And my options on the bench are very limited when I have to switch players," said the Brazilian coach. "I also expected a bit more from some of my players today."
Marvin Reid finished the night as Centennial's second-best scorer, with eight points, behind Timothy Ho's 14.
Ho was the only Colt to reach the double-digit mark, while Tom Cullingworth also put up double digit scoring for the Thunder (1-1), matching a game-high 14 points.
Thunder setter Jackie Nguyen, whose accuracy and ball distribution was praised by Bento after the match, posted 21 assists and seven points.
Centennial's Javed Baksh contributed with 16 assists throughout the night.
Despite the Colts' hard effort on the court, the Thunder dominated all three sets of the action for most of the part and set up the tone of the contest since the first serve of the night.
While losing to Algonquin can be an acceptable result, Bento didn't approve the way her players acted during the match.
"I thought they (my players) felt intimidated. There were moments of the game in which we were equal but I thought they felt a little intimidated," she said. "In a game like that, in which the other team steps up as the superior side, you have to put everything you can. Is it hard? Yes, it's hard. But it's hard for both sides."
"When you go to the war, you can't get intimidated, you have to put yourself in the front line. If our team had been braver, it would have been a different game."
The Colts will try to bounce-back in the season as they visit the Fleming Knights on Friday, November 1 at 8:00 p.m.