In a battle back and forth for five sets, the Seneca Sting were able to win more key rallies that the Algonquin Thunder Friday night at Newnham Gym. The Sting, in the home opener, battled back from a poor fourth set to win in five sets.

Seneca started the match off strong in front of the home crowd, but early season errors quickly piled up as the Thunder also fought off some early jitters. Seneca dropped the first set 25-22 despite leading the set 20-18.

In the second set, Seneca looked to even the match while making amends for a late let down in the opening set. Seneca looked poise to accomplish this until another late-set comeback by the Thunder. After blowing a 24-21, Seneca scored the set's final two points for a 26-24 win and even the match at one set apiece.

The third and fourth sets would be complete opposites on the court and on the score sheet.  Seneca took the third frame with a 25-21 win while Algonquin forced a fifth and deciding set with an equally dominating 25-17 fourth set.

In the fifth, Seneca regrouped to take an 8-3 lead at the change over and cruised to a 15-9 final set victory to take the match 3-2.

Biance Newman led the Sting offensively with 17 points (11 kills, five aces and one block) while Kimberly Cedros was not far behind with 16 points of her own offensively (10 kills, five aces and one block). Cedros also added 18 digs with Danielle Simpson contributed five aces of her own Clare Weisser was the defensive star on the evening with an impressive 25 digs.

Offensive leaders for the Thunder were Breann Wheeler (nine kills) while Alixandra Burkat, Devon Brown and Nicole O'Donoughue each had six kills each. O'Donoughue led the team with 20 digs with Brown and Jori Armishaw keeping rallies alive with 16 digs each.

The Seneca Sting (2-1) will host the La Cité Coyotes (1-1) Saturday at 4 p.m. while the Algonquin Thunder (1-2) will travel to play Georgian (1-1) Saturday at 1 p.m.

Source: Seneca College