Dalhousie beats Montreal with close score in 5th set

On Friday, October 23, the Dalhousie Tigers men`s volleyball team had their first game of the AUS-RSEQ Interlock tournament at 7pm against the Montreal Carabins. The final score of the game was 3-2 (16-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-22, 16-14) for the Dalhousie Tigers.

The first set finished with the Carabins in the lead at 25-16. At the beginning of the game, the Tigers held the lead with several great sets made by Jonathan Macdonald (Halifax, NS) which was followed through on the kill a number of times by Matthew Donovan (London, ON).

However, les Carabins managed to finish even more of their chances. After the Tigers started with the lead, Montreal took it and never gave it back during the first set. Montreal`s Saad Elbekri (Montreal, QC) had several kills in the first set and Mikael Dagenais (Montreal, QC) set up numerous hits for les Carabins.

The second set was a much closer game for the Tigers and les Carabins. Kristen O`Brien (Truro, NS) started the set with the first kill and the Tigers continued their lead from there with 16 kills in the first set and 25 total points which earned them the lead. Les Carabins had 11 kills during the second set and had 21 points, making the overall score for the game tied at 1-1.

In the third set, Montreal made some excellent blocks, including 3 block solos, which stopped many of Dalhousie`s kill opportunities. Even with the blocks made by Montreal, O`Brien still managed to lead the kills in the game with 12 by the middle of the third set.

Montreal held the lead for the majority of the third set with most kills made by Phillippe Carrier (Gatineau, QC) and Elbekri at 10 kills each throughout the game by the end of the third set. A lot of credit goes to Matthew Coffey who had 23 assists to start the fourth set which finished at 25-19 for les Carabins over the Tigers.

Starting the fourth set, Montreal led the overall score at 2-1. The Dalhousie Tigers regained their lead for the set with several attacks (111 overall) and 46 assists. Jonathan Macdonald set up several of these plays with 36 assists by the fourth set. Alyson Fracillon (Longueuil, QC) took the lead for most kills out of les Carabins with 13 into the fourth set.

By the end of the fourth set, the game was close with Montreal approaching on the Tigers at 22 points to Dalhousie`s 23. Donovan and O`Brien secured the win for the set with the last two kills that tied the game at 2-2 going into the final set.

The Tigers took the lead right from the start of the fifth set and maintained it over many extended rallies during the set. Francillon and O`Brien continued to lead on the kills for each of their teams. The score was tied at 14-14 in the final set when Justin Lynch (Mt. Uniacke, NS) hit the winning kill of the game bringing the Dalhousie Tigers to their final score of 3-2 over the Montreal Carabins

Earlier in the Interlock tournament, Sherbrooke played Memorial at 5pm and finished with a win for Sherbrooke at a final score of 3-0 (25-15, 29-27, 25-17). Memorial`s Jordan Murray (Burlington, ON) and Liam Power (Lower Sackville, NS) had the most kills for the game with 19 and 18 respectively.

Earlier that day, Laval faced UNB and finished with a 3-1 win for Laval (25-22, 18-25, 26-24, 25-16). Vincent Parraguirre (Santiago, Chili) led the kills for Laval Rouge et Or and the game with 19 over the 4 sets. Ethan Ellison (Toronto, ON) led with the most assists for Laval, and of the game, with 40 overall which helped Laval secure their win.