Written by Thomas Scott
The Dalhousie Tigers begin the hunt for an 11th straight AUS Championship this week. They will take on the SMU Huskies in a best-of-three series starting Thursday in the AUS semi-final.
Thursday’s game will be played at SMU’s Homburg Centre at 7pm and game two will be played at Dalplex on Saturday at 2pm. If necessary, game three will be at the Homburg Centre on Sunday at 7pm.
The Tigers are 3-1 against the Huskies this season.
SMU has three of the top six total kills leaders: Olivia Bell, who leads the conference in kills, Emilia Mikanovich and Megan Bruhm. This trio will be a major offensive threat for the Tigers to defend.
Dal finished third in the AUS, a spot below the Huskies, giving SMU the homecourt advantage.
The Tigers are 5-4 on the road this season. The team’s most encouraging road win came February 15 against the first-seeded Acadia Axewomen in a 3-2 victory.
The team leader in kills, Talia Vydykhan, is fifth in the conference in total kills and third in kills per set. She has reached 15 kills three times this season, with two games resulting in victories. In the 3-2 loss in the last game of the season, Vydykhan recorded 26 kills.
Vydykhan will be a valuable piece in the playoffs, along with the 2022-23 AUS MVP, Lucy Glen-Carter.
Glen-Carter missed most of first semester due to injury. Despite this, Glen-Carter immediately returned to her MVP ways. Seventy-first in games played but fourteeth in kills in the AUS displays how productive Glen-Carter has been this season. Now that she has been back for 10 games this semester, she will be in prime form for playoffs.
Second-year Paris Stewart finished tenth in total kills in the conference. Stewart recorded a season-high 18 kills last weekend against Acadia in a 3-2 victory.
Two of the Tigers middles, Ella Hornby and Grace Calnan, both of whom made AUS all-star teams last season, finished in the 10 for total blocks in the AUS this season. Hornby finished the season with 27 and Calnan recorded 19.
The Tigers are on fire heading into the playoffs. Despite dropping the last game of the season, Dal won five of the previous six games.
Cheer on the Tigers in game two of the semifinals on Saturday at 2pm at Dalplex.