By Hayley McGoldrick
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL RECAP
The Centennial Colts were out seeking revenge on the Canadore Panthers at the Athletic and Wellness Centre (AWC) on Sunday afternoon, after getting swept in early November.
The Colts, coming off their last two losses which both ended in five sets, fell to the Panthers in straight sets (14-25, 23-25, 20-25) for the second time this season.
Vicky Wong and Jada Bradford led Centennial with six points each, as Kristine Ledger led the Canadore Panthers in scoring with an impressive 11.
Stella Dada and Doris Lam also added four points each for the Colts (2-13).
Dada was impressive defensively, adding 13 digs while Lam added eight of her own.
Centennial committed 13 serve errors – seven less than their previous match – as well as serving six aces which kept the second and third sets close.
“The second set did not start off with as good of communication as we wanted to… but they were able to finish strong and go into the third set with that communication and motivation behind them,” said Mary Jo Bryant, women’s volleyball recruitment coach.
“They were focusing on Stella, she was getting most of their serves, our team was supportive of her and allowed her to take that ball because they knew that’s who they were serving to.”
The first set saw Canadore (12-3) establish dominance early with an 11-point win in the first set.
However, the Colts bounced back and put up a fight to the finish in the second set, falling by only two points.
“We could have stayed and done 25-14 all three sets; but we scared them. We made them make substitutions, we made them take timeouts, they had to adjust their defence and rotation,” Bryant said.
“That made is exciting for the bench, that made it exciting for the coaches and the players and they came away from it feeling good that they put their best effort into this match.”
Despite a slow first set, the Colts put up 43 points against their opponents 50 in the following sets, though 13 serving became their downfall in the match.
The third set was the first of the match where Centennial held a lead, but with two different Panthers getting into double-digit digs, their defending was ultimately the decision maker.
“Improving on our attack decisions will help, now we’re coming out of timeouts and covering behind the block, our athletes have to adjust to what the other team is doing on their defence,” Bryant said. “You don’t want to just wish the ball over, the coach is telling you where to put the ball so we want to have our servers confident.”
Centennial remains winless at home, while Canadore won their third match in a row sweeping their last two opponents as well.
The Colts will continue the search for their first win in four games against the Loyalist Lancers on Saturday, Feb. 8 (1 p.m.) at the Athletic and Wellness Centre (AWC).
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL RECAP
Big hits from players like Marvin Reid and Brendan Chau couldn’t save the Colts from the fierce Canadore Panthers’ attacking as they fell in straight sets (23-25, 18-25, 25-27) Sunday afternoon at the Athletic and Wellness Centre (AWC).
Two Centennial players scored in the double digits as Reid delivered 11 kills for the Colts (4-11), while Chau added 10 of his own.
Centennial challenged the Panthers (11-4) in all three sets, but the Panthers dominated to win their fourth game of their last six.
The first set was a close back and forth with both teams coming off strong offensively, as many points for both teams came from defensive errors or failure to make a pass.
Tied at 21, routine play errors like serving and attacks would cost the Colts the first set.
“We knew that we could come back, in the end we expected to have five sets, we don’t know what’s going to happen the first set, I always tell them the first set is always the rhythm. It’s how they’re going to play in the day and how they are going to play,” Bento said.
“They are really trying to do their best and they know that everybody has to work hard; they’re going to spend a lot of energy and a lot of effort; at the end of the day they’ll be more tired than normal but that’s necessary to win.”
An electric first set took the energy out of the Colts as mistakes on defence and hits proved to be their shortcomings in an 18-25 defeat during the second set.
Cameron Daniels tallied 17 assists for the Panthers in their win, and teammate Ben Thompson delivered eight points.
The Panthers derailed the Colts’ energy further to begin set three as they continued to press Centennial on defence and cause many errors on the attack.
“For us, we lost many players and now we are trying to fit the new player in.. we don’t have as strong of a right side right now. Our guys did a really good job, today was tough for us because we had a hard time trying to find a rhythm with our middles,” said head coach Adriana Bento.
The home team refused to give up in the match, as the Panthers established a lead of at least five points all match until the Colts came back to make the game 11-15, forcing the visitors into a timeout.
The Colts scored four unanswered points to tie the game up at 15 each to bring back the momentum on their side of the game.
Again finding themselves tied at 21, the teams traded points back and forth pushing the game into extra points.
Defensive errors would cost the Colts from finding a win and would fall 3-0 to the Panthers for the second time this season.
“We have so many opportunities especially in transition and sometimes we want to do too much, but I always talk about being simple. Play simple instead of trying to create something new, we can be more consistent for the next one,” Bento said.
Centennial dropped to 2-5 at home this season but look to improve as they are back at home in their next matchup.
The Colts will aim to get back to their winning ways against the Loyalist Lancers on Saturday, Feb. 8 (3 p.m.) at the Athletic and Wellness Centre (AWC).