Game recap by: Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – in their final home game of the season, the Dalhousie Tigers hosted the Laval Rouge et Or on the second day of a back to back. The teams battled back and forth for three tight sets, but the Rouge et Or came out on the winning side of each in a 3-0 victory.
Kills came early and often from both sides, with Jeffrey Walton (Sudbury, ON) leading the attack from the Tigers, and Alexandre Obomsawin (Gatineau, QC) for the Rouge et Or in a tight start to the match.
The Rouge et Or were able to gain a slight advantage midway through the set after back to back aces from Ethan Ellison (Toronto, ON) sent them into the technical timeout up 16-13.
That lead continued to grow for the Rouge et Or out of the break however, with Vincente Villalobos (Santiago, Chili) getting in on the attack with three straight kills to give his team the 25-18 win in the opening set.
Both teams were swinging hard once again at the start of the second set, trading kills from Obomsawin and Kobe Shannon (Halifax, NS) with the lead never growing past a single point.
After a massive kill from Matthew Woods (Halifax, NS), the Rouge et Or countered with a kill from Jean-Benoit Gagne (Quebec, QC) to make it 16-15 at the technical break.
The Rouge et Or were able to gain the first real advantage of the set out of the break with Obomsawin picking up back to back aces for the first two-point lead.
Holding that advantage with kills from Villalobos and Obomsawin, the Rouge et Or took the set 25-23 when the serve from Graham Schmuland (Calgary, AB) sailed into the net to make it 2-0 for Laval.
The Tigers were struggling to get attacks to land at the start of the third set, and falling victim to a strong service game with Obomsawin collecting three aces in a six-point stretch.
The advantage continued to grow for the Rouge et Or, as back to back errors from the Tigers gave Laval a 16-6 lead at the technical timeout.
The Tigers were able to rally out of the break, with Jeffrey Walton sending home two huge kills to spark a four-point run, but after a timeout, the Rouge et Or did the same to make up the advantage.
With a final swing from Jack Daly (St. John's, NL), the Rouge et Or closed out the straight-set match with a 25-17 win in the third set.
Kobe Shannon led the Tigers offense in this one with 9 kills, while Alexandre Obomsawin was named the Subway Player of the Game with 14 kills and 4 aces in the match.
Before the game the Tigers honoured their graduating players Matthew Woods and Harrison Callaghan (Halifax, NS) in their final home game.
The Tigers will finish up their regular season next weekend when they travel to play UNB in a double-header while the Rouge et Or will take on Montreal next Friday.