By Troy Langstaff
This weekend saw the conclusion of regular season action in AUS hockey and women’s volleyball. Men’s and women’s basketball will wrap up this weekend with the AUS championships taking place March 17-20 at the Scotiabank Centre. The swim teams, as well as track & field are now also looking ahead to the conference championships.
Let’s take a look at how the Tigers performed this past weekend and where they sit heading into championship season.
Women’s Hockey
This past weekend, the women’s hockey team wrapped up their regular season with games versus STFX and St. Thomas. The fell 5-0 to the X-Women Friday night at the Halifax Forum and then bounced back with a 5-1 victory over the Tommies in Fredericton on Saturday. Olivia Eustace and Brooklyn Paisley led the way with three points apiece while Taylor Beam backstopped the win with 33 saves.
The Tigers finished with a 4-12-5 record, good for seventh in the league. They’ll take on the second-seeded Saint Mary’s Huskies tonight at 7pm in a single-game elimination quarter-final playoff across town at the Dauphinee Centre.
Saint Mary’s won all four meetings between the teams during the regular season, but the Huskies have cooled off having gone 3-3-0 in their last six games. The Tigers will also have Troy Ryan behind the bench who recently returned from Beijing where he won an Olympic gold medal with Canada’s national women’s team.
Men’s Hockey
The men’s hockey team also played their last two games of the regular season. They were in New Brunswick for the weekend and dropped Friday's game 5-1 to Moncton. On Saturday they were shutout 5-0 by the number one ranked team in the country, the UNB REDS.
The Tigers finished with an 11-11-1 record which had them third in league standings. It’s the program’s best finish in 19 years. Tonight, Acadia will host Moncton in a play-in game to determine who plays Dalhousie in a best-of-three quarter-final series.
The Tigers won two of three games versus Acadia this year but struggled against Moncton. The Aigles Bleus beat Dalhousie in three of their four meetings this season. Good news for Dalhousie is that they will have home ice advantage in the quarter-finals. They went 7-3-1 at the Halifax Forum this year while Acadia and Moncton have a combined five wins on the road.
Women’s Basketball
The women’s basketball team was supposed to play two games this past weekend but their Friday match-up versus Acadia was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols. On Sunday they hosted the UNB REDS and held a two-point lead heading into the fourth quarter but couldn’t close out the victory, ultimately losing 69-60. Hannah Chadwick led all players with a season-high 19 points and nine rebounds, just one board shy of a double-double.
Cape Breton comes to town this weekend for a pair of games to close out the regular season. The team sits eighth in the league and could face either UPEI, Saint Mary’s or Acadia in the quarter-finals.
Men’s Basketball
Dalhousie’s men’s basketball team was one of two Tigers teams that went undefeated on the weekend. They calmly beat Acadia 100-74 on Friday and then took care of business Sunday afternoon in an 82-67 win over UNB. Keevan Veinot and Shamar Burrows each had at least 25 points in both games. This weekend they’ll play Cape Breton twice to finish the regular season. Heading into this final weekend, the Tigers are ranked number six in Canada.
The team currently sits first in the league with a 10-2 record. They hold a 10-point lead on UPEI, Saint Mary’s and STFX who are all tied for second place. With only one weekend of regular season play left, the Tigers will likely play Acadia in the quarter-finals of the AUS championships on March 17th.
Women’s Volleyball
The women’s volleyball team was the busiest of all the Tigers teams this past weekend. They had three straight wins over the Memorial Sea-Hawks in Newfoundland, dropping just one set in the process. Julie Moore earned player of the game honours in all three matches averaging 15.3 kills and 14.7 digs per game.
Those three straight wins to finish off the year gave the Tigers a 9-5 record and a third-place finish in the standings. It’s a quick turn-around as the playoffs start tomorrow with the Tigers taking on Memorial once again, this time at home in Dalplex.
If Dalhousie wins, they will face Acadia in the semifinal in Wolfville. Acadia and Dalhousie played each other four times during the season with Acadia winning three of those games. If the Tigers make it to the final, it will be a best-of-three series with the higher seeded team hosting all the games.
Men’s Volleyball
A 3-0 loss at the hands of the UNB REDS this past Saturday marked the only game of the weekend and the last of the season for the men’s volleyball team. The loss dropped them to 2-9 on the year and with the win, the REDS clinched the fourth and final playoff spot. The program has now missed the playoffs in two of the three seasons since joining the RSEQ conference.
Track & Field
This weekend the Tigers track & field team took part in the ANS Open and the Windsor Team Challenge in Ontario. At the ANS Open, Lorena Heubach took home first-place finishes in the long jump and shot put. The Tigers swept first place in the 1000m (Carley Birrell, Lukas Rudaitis), the triple jump (Kayli Friesen-Weir, Oluwatobi Oshikoya) and in the weight throw (Lily Spoozak, Simon Salah). Dalhousie athletes won 10 of the 31 events.
In Windsor, Ont., the Tigers placed fourth in both the men’s and women’s final team rankings out of 17 total teams with Aidan Goslett and Temi Toba-Oluboka leading the way winning the 1000m and weight throw events, respectively.
The AUS championships go March 18-19 at l’Université de Moncton. The U SPORTS championships will be two weeks after that in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Swimming
The Tigers swim teams last competed February 26th in a dual meet with Acadia. The AUS championships are this weekend at Dalplex. Spectators are not permitted, but all finals will be broadcast live on AUS TV.
The U SPORTS championships will be hosted at l’Université de Laval March 24-26.
All remaining regular season and playoff action can be seen live on AUSTV. Be sure to follow the Tigers on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date on the latest news and scores.