By: Zach Worden
Scarborough — Sky Yiu Yeung finished with 15 kills and 13 digs as the Centennial Colts beat the George Brown Huskies 3-2 Saturday afternoon in OCAA Men's volleyball action.
Ayoola Ojeshina and Brendan Chau also provided a spark with their attacking prowess. The duo combined for 21 kills and 13 digs in Centennial's win. Tarun Singh set a season-high in assists, tallying 36 to extend his team lead.
The victory marks the Colts (2-2) second straight. They will be back in action next weekend against the Loyalist Lancers.
"We are going to focus a lot on our downs," Colts Head Coach Adrianna Bento said postgame. "When we are tired, how we can do better and how we can focus in — the small things like finishing sets, finishing hits, and finishing serves — is the big thing for us for how we can finish the game better than we did today."
Saturday's match was the first of two between the two OCAA east division members. The Huskies (1-3) will host Centennial On Feb 1.
Centennial held an advantage in the first set behind Yiu Yeung. The fifth-year outside hitter had four kills and four digs in the opening frame to help the Colts take control early. They broke out to a 17-10 lead early, but the Huskies scored the next five points, forcing a Centennial timeout.
In the face of George Brown's comeback push, Centennial would take the opening set 25-21. The tight battle from the end of the first continued into the second set. As the two teams, tried to gain an advantage, the Colts would separate first, taking a three-point lead. Despite the Centennial lead, the Huskies would chip away, eventually making the set 22-21.
The Colts would hold off the comeback and take a 2-0 lead behind a 25-23 set win. Yiu Yeung and Ojeshina, lead the attack in the set, combining for nine kills, while Tarun Singh mixed in eight assists. George Brown took a 7-2 lead out of the gate in set number three, fighting to not go down in straight sets. Out of a Colts timeout, the Huskies grew their lead to nine.
But the home squad continued to work their way back into the set — despite the big deficit. They would cut the lead down to four, but George Brown did enough to spoil the comeback attempt and take its first set 25-20. Ojeshina added to his solid match in the third with four kills and two digs, and Yiu Yeung was big for Centennial again with three more kills and five digs.
The visiting side started the fourth set the same way they did the third — by breaking out to
A 7-2 lead. This time around, the Colts rebounded and stayed within striking distance. But the closest they could get was within four.
George Brown took the fourth set 25-17, forcing a fifth and match-deciding frame.
The final set got off to a much different start, as the teams traded points before the Huskies took the first multi-point advantage, going up 7-5. The Colts' front line would play a big role in keeping that deficit at two and helping them take a 10-9 lead. The match would bounce between a Colts' lead and tied for the next four points, but a long Huskie attack put Centennial up 13-11. The white and green wrapped up their thrilling victory with a Yin Yeung attack to come away victorious in the fifth 15-13.
"It's a long game," Bento said on the Colts bouncing back from two straight-set losses to win in the fifth. "Of course, we want to finish in three — it's what we expect… but I'm glad the guys came back in the fifth and won."