By: Zach Worden
SCARBOROUGH — Ayoola Ojeshina had 13 kills, three blocks, and one dig as the Centennial Colts fell to the Georgian Grizzlies 3-0 in Wednesday night OCAA men’s volleyball action.
Brenden Chau added to the Colts’ efforts in the match with eight kills and three digs of his own, while Tarun Singh totaled 27 assists in the Colts’ home opener.
“It was really good to play in front of my home crowd,” Singh said after the game. “The result wasn't what we were expecting but in our next game we will try to fix it.”
Centennial falls to 0-2 on the season and the Grizzlies improve to 2-0.
The Colts will have the chance to get their first win of the season this weekend when they welcome the Seneca Sting to the Athletic & Wellness Centre.
The Grizzlies won the first set 25-18 behind some strong play from their front line. Outside hitters Josiah Grimm, CJ Okeke, and Gage McCurdy each made their presence felt in the match from the get-go with some strong kills.
The set was a back-and-forth battle early as the Colts were able to get some points behind Chau and Ojeshina. Chau finished the set with two kills, while Ojeshina had three kills of his own — adding in two blocks.
Helping out Centennial was Singh, who totaled five assists in the opening set.
But Georgian proved to be too much to handle on its way to the first set victory.
The back-and-forth match continued straight into the second set, with no team building a lead larger than one throughout the majority of the frame.
After falling behind by two late in the set, Georgian scored four straight points to take a 21-18 lead, and despite a Colts’ comeback, the Grizzlies took the second set 25-22.
Chau and Long Yiu Yeung had three kills each in the set, while Singh added 10 more assists to his total for the night.
After a tightly contested opening to the third set, Georgian started to separate as they capitalized on some unforced Colts’ errors.
Centennial worked its way back into the set, eventually taking a 16-15 lead after an ace.
As the crowd at the AWC was treated to all night, the third set once again came down to the wire. After trailing 24-21, the Colts won three straight points out of a timeout tying it up.
In a thrilling end to the final set, the two teams continued to trade points until the Grizzlies held off on two out-of-play returns from the Colts to claim the final set 31-29.
“We were taking one point, then giving up one point. It was back and forth continuously,” Singh said about the tight sets just not going to Colts’ way. “I give full credit to the [Grizzlies], we were not able to capitalize but I hope we will do much better in the next game.”