The Dalhousie Tigers women's volleyball invitational got underway at the Dalplex on Friday night with the Saint Mary's Huskies and Acadia Axewomen opening the tournament off. Acadia came out on top in a thrilling 5 set match after being down 2-0. In the second match of the evening, the Tigers opened up their preseason with a 3-0 victory over the UdeM Aigles Bleues.

The Tigers came out of the gate slow and were hindered by unforced errors but managed to grab a 25-18, 27-25, 25-8 win. As the game progressed Dalhousie seemed to find their grove offensively and tightened up defensively. Anna Dunn-Suen and Mieke DuMont led the Tigers with 11 and 9 kills respectively, while defensive specialist, Marisa Mota led all players with 8 digs. The Aigles Bleues spread the ball with 10 players recording a kill.

The first set started off with both teams trading points back and forth until Mieke Dumont took the Tigers on a five point run on the strength of her serve in the middle of the set. Dalhousie opened their biggest lead of the set at 18-15 and would continue to stretch the margin for a 25-18 win. UdeM recorded 8 kills while Dalhousie had 12 kills in the frame.

It looked like the Tigers were going to run away with the second set jumping out to an 11-6 lead but the Aigles Bleues rallied back knotting things up at 14 a side. After a first set that was composed of short points, both teams seemed to dig everything in the second, making for an exciting set. The Aigles Bleues had two chances to close out the set at 24-23 and 25-24 but Anna Dunn-Suen came up with two clutch kills. Dalhousie held on to win the second set 26-24.

Dalhousie ran away with the third and final set winning 25-8.

UdeM could not handle the hard-hitting Tigers in the end who hit 31 kills. Dalhousie got solid secondary offensive from two rookies in Courtney Baker and Victoria Haworth who hit 7 kills together.

UdeM kicks off tomorrow's action at 11am against the SMU Huskies. The Tigers will follow at 1pm when they take on Acadia.