Stewart leads Tigers in win

Written by Wells Mayes, Dalhousie Athletics

[Halifax, NS]–The Dalhousie Tigers defeated the Université de Moncton Aigles-Bleues in 3 straight sets on Friday night (25-19, 25-14, 25-22).

In a tight first set, it was the Tigers who came out swinging. After trailing by five points midway through the contest, Dalhousie went on an 8-point run to swing the balance of power, helped by some stellar play by the Tigers' Lucy Glen-Carter (Toronto, ON) and Paris Stewart (Halifax, NS). They wrapped things up with another kill by Glen-Carter to seal the deal, taking the opening salvo by 25 points to 19.

The second set was more decisive in the Tigers' favour. After a kill and an ace from Sara Chiasson (Pointe à Bouleau, NB) and Cassidy Martin (Dieppe, NB) to open proceedings for the Aigles-Bleues, they hit a dry spell, only winning two of the next 14 points. Fourth-year outside hitter Amelia Hartnett (Fredericton, NB) stood out for the Tigers during this crucial stretch, amassing a trio of kills and an important block to give Dalhousie a big lead that they would not relinquish. This put the Tigers two sets up and firmly in control of the direction of the match.

Dalhousie built on the momentum they built in the second set and carried it into the third. The Tigers nosed in front 9 points into the set and led until the Aigles-Bleues knotted the scores thanks to four kills by Ivana Uruquart-Mladineo (Saint-Jean, NB) at the midway point of this third period of action. From this moment onwards, the teams traded points until the Tigers reeled off five straight points from 19-21 to bring up match point. After a Paris Stewart (Halifax, NS) service error, the Tigers would convert their second match point opportunity thanks to a kill from Talia Vydykhan (Hammonds Plains, NS).

With the win, Dalhousie improves to 6-5 on the season, while the Aigles-Bleues fall to 5-6 after today's results.

On this Friday night, Dalhousie's player of the game was second year outside Paris Stewart (Halifax, NS), who tallied a team-leading 10 kills and 11.5 points.

For the Aigles-Bleues, their player of the game was Ivana Uruquart-Mladineo (Saint-Jean, NB), who led her team with an impressive 8 kills and a strong .333 hitting percentage.

Both teams are back in action here tomorrow on Saturday, January 13 at the Dalplex at 1:00PM AST.