.
Central Elgin Titan Sam Gredig (8) sets the ball
for Seth Kuiper, during a TVRA AA junior boys
volleyball quarter-final against Huron Park.
(photo / Rob J. Ross)November, 8, 2016
ST. THOMAS, Ont. - Facing the possibility of having to attend school this Thursday, the Central Elgin Titans suddenly became a different team.
Trailing the Thames Valley Region junior boys’ volleyball quarterfinal, two games one, against the Woodstock Huron Park Huskies, the Titan rebounded to whip the Huskies, 25-9, in game four, before taking the match, with a dominating 15-3 game five win, at Central Elgin Collegiate.
The final scorecard read in favour of the Titans (25-22, 23-25, 19-25, 25-9, 15-11).
Appearing somewhat defeated, after a 25-19 game three loss, coach Ezra Nicholson during a team huddle, explained the reality if the Titans lost their next game.
"Our backs were against the wall. It was the season (but) we wanted to keeping playing,” Nicholson said, adding jokingly, “It was, ‘do you want to get out of school on Thursday!? They were like, ‘yes’. That was the big motivation.”
It certainly had an effect, as the difference in the Titans’ play was day and night, compared to the first three games of the match.
“We came out with more energy (in game four) and that is one thing we needed,” Nicholson said. “We cut out a lot of the errors we were making, serving errors, passing errors. We made smarter decisions. There was more communication on the court and all that cut down the errors.”
Huron Park looked stunned by the Titans’ sudden surge and never recovered, hampered as well by their own unforced errors.
“We gained a lot of momentum. We had a couple of good serving runs early in game four. That set the tone. Then we had to carry it into game five and things went our way.”
Malachi Ndur, who struggled to find his mark earlier in the match, sending the ball out of bounds, came out firing on target in game four, with four kills. Ndur continued his destruction of the Huskies’ defence throughout game five.
Now the Titans move on to the semi-finals, at Ingersoll D.C.I, on Thursday, in a likely match-up against the host team.
“We have to play as well as we did in games four and five,” Nicholson said.
The Titans finished the regular season sharing top spot in the TRVA South division, with the Parkside Stampeders, at 6-1. Parkside clinched first, having the better head to head results versus Central Elgin.
Ingersoll was number one in the East division with a 7-1 record.
The second semi-final will feature Parkside and Woodstock Collegiate. Parkside dusted Woodstock College Avenue in three games, while WCI eliminated East Elgin.
Central Elgin’s senior team fell in a three game sweep, to Woodstock College Avenue (26-24, 25-19, 25-21).
Parkside advanced to the senior semi-finals, defeating Woodstock C.I., in four games (26-24, 22-25, 25-9. 25-5).
Woodstock Huron Park defeated the East Elgin Eagles, while Ingersoll eliminated Tillsonburg, to earn their berths in the senior semi-finals.
© 2016 Hometownplay.ca