Recap by Brianna McCarthy
[Halifax NS] – The Montréal Carabin's beat the Dalhousie Tigers 3-1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-14) at Dalplex on Saturday afternoon.
The game started with an energetically. A set from the Carabin's Maxime St-Denis (Ottawa, ON) soared close to the net however a sneaky tip from Moïse B. Datus (Montréal, QC) fooled the Tigers defence and won them the point. A few points later, a smart tip from Simon Coulet (Aubenas, FRA) from Montréal did not fool Dalhousie's Thomas Watchman (Edmonton, AB) as he made a solo block which gave them a 9-8 lead. Soon after, Watchman set up Jacob Oyler (Halifax, NS) who sent a rocket straight through the Carabins block for a huge kill. The Tigers clawed away at Montreal's lead, and after a Carabin's timeout, found victory and won the set 25-22.
The second set did not let up on the action.
Moïse had a snipe of a serve which went on for 5 points without Dalhousie being able to respond. However, from the immediate deficit, the Tigers did not concede and chipped away at the score.
A strong spike from Oyler found Montréal's wall composed of Ghassen Zgarni (Kélibia, TUN) and Alexis Tournier (Gatineau, QC) who did not allow the point and soon after won the set 25-19.
Third set was tight which kept the crowd on their toes.
One of the many riveting rallies in this set found the hands of Dalhousie's Michael Donovan (London, ON) who produced a spike too hard for Montréal to handle.
In response, St-Denis worked well with Coulet who hit a cross-court kill to reduce the Carabin's defect 8-9.
A strong spike from Coulet was cleanly handled by the Tigers and in response, Watchman set up first year Tyler Wiseman (Clarenville, NS) for a jaw-dropping kill which tied the game 13-13.
On another long rally, Josh DeYoung (Cole Harbour, NS) and Donovan kept the Tigers in the match with nail-biting digs just long enough to win the point.
However, the drive of the Carabins awarded Datus with 10 kills to find victory with a 25-21 set win.
Montréal had more than enough steam left in them for the final set, and it is a solid block from Zgarni that ended the eventful match 25-14.
Montréal will be heading back home to face Laval on their home soil on November 17th at 7:30pm EST.
Dalhousie will be resting this week and will also travel to Laval on November 24th at 8:30pm AST