Source: Andy Campbell, UNB Athletics
(FREDERICTON, NB) The Dalhousie Tigers completed a weekend sweep of the UNB Varsity Reds, scoring a 3-2 victory, Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers won with scores of 25-19, 18-25, 25-27, 25-22 and 15-6.
The win gives Dal a solid grip on first place in the Atlantic University Sport standings, with a 5-2 record.
The Varsity Reds fall to 3-4.
The Tigers' win comes less than 24 hours after they beat UNB 3-2, on Friday.
For the second consecutive match, Kristen O'Brien (Truro, NS) was named the Subway Player of the Game. He led the Tigers with 20 kills and 11 digs.
Matthew Donovan (London, ON) had 17 kills and 9 digs for Dal, while Adam Spragg (Gilford, ON) registered a game-high 44 assists.
Eivind Andersen (Sandnes, NOR) led the Varsity Reds. He had 17 kills and 10 digs.
Tristen Burridge (Fort St. John, BC) had 10 kills and 13 digs for UNB, while Kent Doucette (Tignish, PE) had 35 assists.
UNB opened the scoring in the first set and the teams traded points to a 4-4 tie.
Dal then went on a 4-0 run, taking control and never relinquishing it.
The Tigers took the first set 25-19.
The second set saw UNB go on an early 6-0 run, with Sam Alves (Melbourne, AUS) serving, taking a 9-3 lead.
A 5-0 run gave the Varsity Reds a 21-16 edge, before winning 25-18.
The Varsity Reds rallied from an early 3-0 deficit in the third set.
Tied 25-25, a Donovan service error and a block by Burridge and Alves gave UNB a 27-25 win.
The Tigers built leads of 15-10 and 20-15 in the fourth, winning 25-22.
The teams traded points early in the deciding set before Spragg served three straight points as Dal went ahead 5-2.
They were never really challenged, en route to a 15-6 win.
"It's huge for us," said Donovan, a fourth year outside hitter. "We've got a bunch of new guys in the starting line-up, they've got pretty much their whole team back. I think this shows the improvements that our team has made up until now."
"It definitely gives us a lot of confidence going into next semester," said Donovan.
"We're not happy," said UNB's Doucette, about the loss. "We know what we need to work on, so hopefully we'll get them next time, when we go back to Dal."
Doucette feels Dal played well, but that the Varsity Reds beat themselves.
"It's not what they were doing. We're just not playing our game. We're too inconsistent," he said. "They're a good team, but we can play better than we did… and we can play better than them."
The Tigers next action will be January 13th, when they host Laval, in an AUS-RSEQ interlock tournament. UNB faces Montreal the same day.
The Varsity Reds will host the University of Winnipeg Wesmen in an exhibition series, December 28th, 29th and 30th, at the Richard J. Currie Center.
The Wesmen are currently U Sports Canada's No. 10 ranked team