By: Jack Middleton

London, ON - The Centennial Men's Volleyball team dropped a 5-set thriller to the Humber Hawks in semi-final action on Friday night in London.

The Colts went into Friday with all the confidence in the world.  Being one of the highest seeds left in the playoffs, facing the lowest seeded team left and coming off of two momentum building and exciting playoff matchups in the weeks prior.  

The game started off as usual for the Colts.  A slow start marked with errors in service as well as not being able to work sideout opportunities.  Not being able to get through the Humber blocking as well as not being able to predict quick sets up the middle from the Hawks.  The Colts dropped the first set 25-19.

Once again, the stroyline continued for the Colts.  An energetic Colts team came out of the break on fire, finding more rhythm on offence and staying steady of service as the Colts stayed in the lead for the whole 2nd set and won 25-23.  

Much of the same in the 3rd set for the Colts.  The Colts' setter Michael Matsuto was key in making the right passes and setting up the offence throughout the game.  The Colts pushed even harder in this set and it showed on the scoreboard, winning the 3rd set 25-18.

The 4th set changed the look of the game.  The Hawks came out firing on all cylinders, not willing to go down without a fight.  Using the energy from the Hawks crowd, Humber pulled away early in the set.  The Colts, using strategic timeouts, were able to stunt the momentum of the Hawks and battle their way back into the set but the Hawks pulled away late to take the set 25-20.

Fifth set action was not what the Colts wanted to look at coming into the game.  Game script went that way as well.  The Hawks started the set on a 7-1 run.  A tall task for the Colts to overcome and in the end, were not able to do so. losing the 5th set 15-8.

This doesn't end the season however, as the Colts move into the bronze medal game on Saturday at 2:30PM where they will take on the Cambrian Golden Shield.