Game recap by Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – In the final match of a triple-header, the Dalhousie Tigers once again hosted the Memorial Sea-Hawks for matinee action on Sunday. With a strong offensive output, the Tigers were able to come away with a 3-1 win to sweep the weekend.
The Tigers found their hot-hand early in the match, with Julie Moore (Halifax, NS) sending home 5 kills on the Tigers first 10 points.
The Tigers hitters were dominant in the opening of the set, with a big swing from Victoria Turcot (Halifax, NS) sending the teams into the technical timeout with the Tigers leading 16-5.
Continuing an impressive run in the back-half of the set, Victoria Haworth (Waverly, NS) sent back three huge blocks for the Tigers to make quick work of the opening set with a 25-9 win.
Starting the second set, the setters on both sides were on fire, finding 7 different hitters for kills in as many points.
After the Tigers had gained a slight advantage, the Sea-Hawks were able to climb back into the set with a run highlighted by a big kill, followed by a service ace from Catherine Smith (Mount Pearl, NL) to force a timeout from the Tigers.
Coming out of the break, a kill from Turcot, and a string of errors from the Sea-Hawks sent it into the technical break with the Tigers leading 16-12.
The Sea-Hawks had energy coming out of the break, however, with a big block from Smith and Cecilie Dumaresque (St. John's, NL) sparked their team to take their first lead of the match at 23-22 after another kill from Smith.
With a big kill from Kaitlyn Kuchinka (Edmonton, AB) and an attack from the Tigers that sailed wide, the Sea-Hawks were able to come all the way back in the set to take a 25-23 win and even the match up at 1-1.
The third set began similar to the first, with Julie Moore and Victoria Turcot taking over the offence for the Tigers to push them ahead to a quick 16-6 lead at the technical break.
Coming out of the timeout it was more of the same as the Tigers got attacking contributions from Myriam Arseneau (Dieppe, NB) before back to back errors from the Sea-Hawks gave the Tigers the 25-12 win in the third set.
The Sea-Hawks hitters were having some troubles early in the fourth set, as the Tigers presence at the net was forcing attacks wide, or ending up on the hands of Courtney Baker (Bridgewater, NS) as a blocker to give the Tigers the lead in the early points.
Dumaresque tried to keep her team in the set by adding a few important kills, but the Tigers took a 16-11 lead into the technical timeout.
Out of the break, Julie Moore took over once again, picking up another three kills to put the match out of reach. With a final block and kill from Myriam Arseneau, the Tigers took the 3-1 match victory with a 25-16 win in the fourth set.
Dumaresque led the Sea-Hawks offence with 10 kills in the match, while Julie Moore had a game-high 17 kills for the Tigers. Catherine Callaghan (Halifax, NS) earned herself the Subway Player of the Game title, being credited with 21 digs and 5 assists in a fantastic defensive performance as the libero.
The Tigers will be back on the court next Friday when they head down the road to Saint Mary's. The Sea-Hawks will have a week off before they come back to Halifax to face the Huskies as well.