By: Kajan Thiruthanikasalam and Teru Ikeda
SCARBOROUGH, ONT.- To begin off a season in which the Centennial Colts women's volleyball team was showing off a new roster along with a new coaching staff, their first test of the season came in the home opener against their rival Durham Lords.
And although the Colts fought tooth and nail, they fell in four sets (25-23, 20-25, 19-25, 18-25) at the Athletic and Wellness Centre. Allyson Terwillegar led all scorers with 16 points on a game high 15 kills while Karlina Domingo led Durham with 16 assists.
Emily Joe led Centennial with 15 points on nine kills, two blocks, and a game high four aces, while Nadjema Soro dished out a game high 24 assists. Heather Sanchez led all players with 11 digs in the loss.
Errors were the story for Centennial as they committed four more service errors (19-15) and nine more attack errors (20-11) despite outpacing Durham, 45-28, in digs. Meanwhile, the Lords had the Colts' number in kills (36-31) and blocks (5-3).
Durham raced out to a six point lead (17-11) in the first set but Centennial came roaring back to take the first set, 25-23, led by four kills and two aces in the set from Joe.
In the second set, the Lords used the strength of four kills from Terwillegar and three kills apiece from Jessica Joensen and Pasha Ormerod to go up by as many as seven. Despite Centennial cutting the lead to as little as two, Durham managed to score three straight to tie the match up, winning the second set, 25-20.
The Colts came out of the gates strong in the third set, scoring the first five points and holding a 11-7 lead midway through after an ace from Stella Dada. But the Lords took control of the third set from there on out, scoring eight unanswered as the home side couldn't bounce back, falling 25-19 in the third set.
Despite Joe's six points in the fourth set (four kills, block, ace), Terwillegar's five kills in the fourth set combined with the strength of a 9-0 run from Durham ultimately were too much to overcome for the home side as they lost the fourth set, 25-18, and the match.
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The Colts look to rebound on Tuesday Oct. 23 at 6:00pm as they face off against the Georgian Grizzlies at the Athletic and Wellness Centre.