Volleyball Tigers move on to AUS final
(Halifax, NS) – In the first semi-final matchup of the AUS Championships, the Dalhousie Tigers faced off against the Saint Mary’s Huskies at the Dalplex. The Tigers were able to generate early leads in sets, and it paid off as they move onto the AUS Final with a 3-0 win.
Game recap by Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – In the first semi-final matchup of the AUS Championships, the Dalhousie Tigers faced off against the Saint Mary's Huskies at the Dalplex. The Tigers were able to generate early leads in sets, and it paid off as they move onto the AUS Final with a 3-0 win.
The Tigers struck first in the match, with AUS All-Star Julie Moore (Halifax, NS) hammering home a kill for the opening point of the match. The Tigers jumped on the early momentum with Moore serving to give her team an early 7-2 lead.
The Tigers defense was a strong point in the set, with Victoria Turcot (Halifax, NS) and Hannah Aldcorn (Calgary, AB) got in on a big block for the Tigers, followed by Moore with a solo block of her own and the Tigers held a 16-6 lead at the technical break.
The Huskies refused to go away in the set, with Sim Gill (Mississauga, ON) and Jamie Rourke (Mission, BC) picking up four kills between them, but the lead was too much for them to come back from in the set.
With back to back errors from the Huskies and Mieke DuMont (Kamloops, BC) dropping in an ace, the Tigers took a 25-16 win in the opening set.
Keeping the same energy to start the second set, the Tigers got some great serving from Libby Falkenham (Halifax, NS) as they opened the set on a 9-1 run.
The Huskies were able to regroup before the technical break however, with some tough attacks from Rourke and Bethany Smith (Moncton, NB) forcing the Tigers to scramble defensively, leading to errors.
The Tigers still held the lead at 16-8 at the technical timeout.
Gill and Smith tried to start the comeback out of the break with a few big kills, but the Tigers were able to slowly grow the lead, and with Turcot coming up with a big defensive play for the Tigers, they came away with the 25-16 win in the set once again.
The Tigers offense once again came out with energy, starting the third set with four-straight kills from four different hitters. Once again the Tigers jumped out to an early lead, this time at 8-2.
The Huskies settled in for a run of their own with huge kills coming off the hand of Olivia Bell (La Have, NS), forcing a timeout from the Tigers as the lead shrank to just three.
Coming out of the timeout, the Tigers offense was a force with eight-straight points, with great serving from DuMont to bring them into the technical break at 16-7.
The Tigers size advantage at the net continued to show, with blocks coming from Victoria Haworth (Waverly, NS).
The Tigers lead was too much in the set, and as Mieke DuMont hammered home the final kill, the Tigers took the 25-13 win for the straight-set victory.
Sim Gill led the attack for the Huskies, with 7 kills in the loss, while Mieke DuMont finished with 11 kills in the match to lead the Tigers to the final.
The Tigers will take on the winner between UNB and Acadia, Saturday at 4:00pm.