By: Marcus Rebelo and Emmanuel Mvovi
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL RECAP
The Centennial Colts women's volleyball team returned home from a three-game road trip but were unable to grab a victory against their inner-city rivals, the Seneca Sting.
Centennial (1-6) fell in three straight sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-10) to the Sting (3-3).
Assistant coach Everest Fabro-Valdez outlined what he needs to see from his team moving forward.
“I just thought we showed a lack of fight,” said Fabro-Valdez, post-game. “The score showed it and our team needs to show why they wanted to play volleyball.”
The Colts had 16 total errors as compared to four from the Sting.
Although Centennial found themselves down for a majority of the match, first-year Jada Bradford was third in game-scoring with eight points.
“The fact that they were able to bounce back in a few of the sets really showed our resilience,” Fabro-Valdez said. “That stopped though but we as coaches told the team ‘once we’re riding a wave we just have to keep going, if they lose that point—get it back,’ we need to start going on runs.
“We can’t get a good point and then miss a serve or get a good point and then hit it out.”
Seneca was led by Zeniah Pinnock who had a game-high 11 kills and 12 points.
The three-game trip away from the Athletic and Wellness Centre (AWC) at Progress Campus wasn’t as tough.
The Colts won their first game of the season three sets to one against the Fleming Knights in the opener of their road visits, but fell to the Georgian Grizzlies and Canadore Panthers, winning only one out of the six total sets played.
Seeking their second win of the season and first at home, the Colts will face the undefeated, East Division first place team, the Durham Lords on Monday, November 18 at 6 p.m.
“I’m looking for a fight from our team,” said Fabro-Valdez. “If we lose 25-to-5 but we lost with a fight I’ll be happy, but as of right now they’re not fighting.”
“As long as I see fight I don’t care what the score is, I told them if they fight for each point they’re going to win the game.”
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL RECAP
The Centennial Colts men's volleyball team snapped a four-game losing streak and swept the Seneca Sting 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-18).
Centennial (2-5) has failed to win a set in their five losses and lost 12 straight sets heading into Friday’s matchup.
The Sting (0-6), who occupy the bottom of the OCAA East standings found themselves down 22-19 in the first set and called a timeout. Following the break, they rallied to tie the game at 24.
Centennial maintained their composure and won the next two points to clinch the opening set.
“I think for the team, that created confidence,” said head coach Adriana Bento, post-game. “We are always trying to build chemistry and trying to find what kind of players we’re going to use, so we made many switches for all the games to try and find what is the best lineup.”
“Winning that game showed them that they can get the next one.”
The Colts had more errors than their inner-city rivals (12-5) but made up for it by outpacing them in kills (34-22). Centennial was led by the exceptional play of Javed Baksh, who dished out a game-high 28 assists, nine more than the entire Sting roster.
Many of those assists were set up to Jordan Nnabuogor, who led with a game-high 11 points.
The Colts will look to earn back-to-back victories against the leaders of the OCAA East, the undefeated Durham Lords on Monday, November 18 at 8 p.m.
“I think right now it’s important to have consistency,” said the Bento. “At the end of the day when we play against a strong team, the difference is between errors. If we minimize errors, we’re going to have more opportunities. Minimizing errors is the goal—to be smart when we play and make decisions when the situations are there.
“I think the goal for everyone as well is what we talk a lot about on the court, and that’s learning during the game. They try learning during practice but learning during a game is completely different.”