Huskies Men's Volleyball (2-7) fell to the Seneca Sting (5-4) on Saturday afternoon (Dec 3) at the Casa Loma Athletic Centre. The Huskies dropped the match in four sets (12-25, 15-25, 25-21 10-25).
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Huskies entered this match after dropping three straight sets to the Canadore Panthers a week prior. The Sting came to Casa Loma after losing their last game to the Georgian Grizzlies in four sets. Both sides were hungry to get back into the win column.
In the opening set, the visitors controlled the pace of play, outpowering and outscoring the Huskies on their home court. The Sting would go on to take the set 25-12.
The Sting carried that momentum into the 2nd set continuing to control possession and play to their strengths as they went on to win 25-15 and take a commanding 2-0 lead entering the 3rd set.
The Huskies managed to turn tings around in the 3rd set, as they would settle in and play their style of volleyball. Led by the power of outside hitter David Kiswa (1st Year) who finished the match with 15 kills on 40 attempts and libero Emmanuel Esguerra (1st Year) who racked up 25 assists, the Huskies would go on to edge out the Sting 25-21 to make it 2-1 and avoid the sweep.
Huskies Head Coach Sam Schachter (2nd Season) knew his team did not start the match on the right foot. "I think we lost a bit of confidence in the first two sets and our coaching staff wanted to inspire them considering all that we have endured in the first half of the season." He continued, "We know winning is a mentality and sometimes we struggle with that and at times we also struggle with a bit of consistency, but we were able to bounce back in the third set as we all saw, and we need to make sure that [consistency] is more sustained moving forward. Once we regroup for the second half of the season, we hope to be able to implement those lessons a bit more."
In the 4th set, the Sting would manage to regain the momentum and launch an unrelenting offensive attack that took the Huskies out of the set. Seneca's Peter Ostranski-Ayles and Sev Libramonte would combine for 27 kills on 50 attempts for the match, leading the Sting to a 25-10 victory to win the game 3-1.
Looking ahead at the second half of the season, Schachter is optimistic about the team's ability to turn things around. "We certainly have a lot of talented athletes and considering the volume of injuries we sustained in the first half of the season, we have decent depth." He continued, "However, with that much fluctuation in our line up, it's difficult to build and create chemistry. I think some of the loses reflected the lack of chemistry and lack of consistency we need. We had to move players around a lot, but it shows how dynamic our lineup can be. Hopefully when we get healthy and have players return to our lineup, it gives us some options moving forward and our guys will be able to compete at full strength."
UP NEXT: After a much-needed Winter break, the Huskies will be hosted by the Seneca Sting on Wednesday January 11, 2023 at 8 pm. Can't make it person, catch all the live action on our Huskies Livestream Channel!
