It’s game on for the Dalhousie volleyball Tigers
Both the men’s and women’s teams kick off the Subway AUS Championships this weekend. The men’s team is set to face the UNB Varsity Reds in a best-of-three championship series, with the first game taking place at Dalplex on Friday night at 7 p.m. The women’s team travels to Moncton for its tournament and, with a first-round bye, will be preparing for a semifinal match on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Men’s team seeking redemption
For the men’s team, the showdown with the Varsity Reds is an opportunity for redemption: last year, Dalhousie fell to UNB after 24 years of AUS supremacy. It’s a rematch that everyone has been waiting for.
“It's been an up and down season for our squad with all of the injuries and roster changes,” says Tigers head coach Dan Ota. “We have been improving every week since the holidays and I think that we can be even better this weekend when we face UNB for the conference championship. I think that fans at both schools will be in for a real treat, as they will see two evenly-matched teams going toe-to-toe with everything on the line.”
Recent results favour the Tigers: this past weekend, in the last games of the regular season, the Tigers beat the Varsity Reds 3-1 and 3-2, clinching first place in regular season play. AUS stats leaders for Dalhousie include fifth-year Travis MacLean with 219 total digs this season and first-year middle Connor Maessen who led in service aces (.51 per game) and blocks (96 total). Fourth-year right side Kenneth Rauwerda finished second in the AUS in points with 259.5.
Following the Dalplex contest, game two will be hosted by UNB on Sunday at 2 p.m. If necessary, the third and deciding game will be back at Dalplex on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. All games will be webcast on ssncanada.ca.
Women’s team on a roll
On the women’s side, where the finals are played out in a weekend-long tournament, the Tigers are also in good shape: they come into the tournament on a seven-game winning streak and earned the second-place bye.
“I feel that our team has had an excellent season and worked hard to improve and become better each week,” says head coach Rick Scott. “Our team’s strength this year is our depth, and this will be key to our success in the playoffs. We know that whoever we play on the weekend will be a big challenge. Our focus will be on doing our job and taking care of our responsibilities. We are looking forward to a great weekend of volleyball and leaving it all on the court.”
The Tigers have consistently been ranked in the CIS top 10 since January 10. Dal also recently handed the first-place Saint Mary’s Huskies their only loss of the regular season. The Huskies, who have been ranked in the CIS top 5 the entire season, won the first set before the black and gold came back to win the next three sets. In their last two regular season games at Dalplex this past weekend, the Tigers swept UNB and CBU in three sets. Leading the AUS are players Maggie Li with a hitting percentage of 0.395 and Kirstie Shepherd, averaging 1.35 blocks per game. Louise Facca finished the regular season third in overall points with a total of 233.5.
Should Dalhousie prevail in its semifinal game, it will play in the championship showdown on Sunday at 2 p.m. All games will be broadcast online.