By: Kajan Thiruthanikasalam
So it all came down to one game on a lively Saturday evening for the Centennial Colts (5-13; 8th OCAA East) as they faced off against the unbeaten Humber Hawks (18-0; 1st OCAA West) on the road for a berth at provincials. Win and you're in; lose and season's over.
The Colts were heading into this crossover game on a high after beating a team with a winning record for the first and only time this season in their thrilling five set regular season finale victory at home against the Fleming Knights last Saturday.
Meanwhile, Humber came into the crossover match, dominating the competition. They won 54 out of 56 sets overall and did not drop a set in the second half of the season.
Centennial competed until the very end but ultimately had their season ended at the hands of Humber in straight sets (14-25, 14-25, 15-25).
"We couldn't stop them. Great servers and great hitters," Bento said about Humber. "I thought our division had really good teams but they're a very high quality team. No question."
Bento lamented over the disparity in roster depth between the two squads.
"We need more players," head coach Adriana Bento said. "It's tough to survive at the tail end of the season when you don't have options. It's tough to change the way we play against a lot of teams because of injuries."
Timothy Ho and Brendan Chau each had six points to pace Centennial while Jordan Nnabuogor and Marvin Reid each had five points. Javed Baksh dished out a team high 17 assists for the visitors.
For Humber, Joshua Fadare finished with a game high 15 points on a dozen kills, an ace, and two blocks while Jake Gomes had a game high 26 assists.
The Hawks had the edge in total scored points (56-26), kills (43-22), hitting percentage (.493- .127), assists (38-21), aces (8-3) and blocks (5-1).
Centennial committed seven more attack errors (14-7) but held a 26-18 edge in digs overall.
Humber came flying out of the gates with the strength of an 8-0 run. Centennial cut it to 16-12 after a kill from Brendan Chau but a pair of 4-0 runs from the Hawks gave them a 25-14 first set victory.
Gomes had 10 assists in the set while Fadare had eight points on six kills and two blocks in the first set alone for the Hawks.
In the second set, it was a balanced effort from Humber in terms of their scoring, led by Rrezart Sadiku's four points in the set.
After a service error from Fadare cut the Hawks' lead to six at 18-12, six unanswered points from Humber led the home side to yet another 25-14 set win.
Andrew Blakey, Fadare, and Safon Manning each had four points in the third set, highlighting the egalitarian attack from the hosts.
Centennial, despite starting off the third set well and Baksh's seven assists in the set, were not able to keep up as the Hawks closed out the third set, 25-15, to advance to provincials.
Despite the disappointing loss to officially close the chapter of the 2019-20 men's volleyball season, Bento saw positive signs when reminiscing of the season overall.
"They (the men) learned to be more disciplined when they play," Bento said of the season overall. "They learned to follow instructions in terms of how to play against different teams and want to be better.
"I think we finished fine in terms of winning more games this season than last."
Centennial finishes the regular season with a 5-13 record overall; 3-6 at home and 2-7 on the road.