Dalhousie captures third straight Subway AUS women's volleyball championship title

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) – The Dalhousie Tigers took down the Saint Mary's Huskies in four sets to defend their AUS championship for the second time in as many attempts.

The Tigers dispatched the host UNB Varsity Reds in the semifinal the previous night in a competitive five set match en route to the AUS final.

"This was a hard fought win, you know," said Dalhousie head coach and AUS coach of the year, Rick Scott. "Five sets in the semi, and this was a tough four set win over Saint Mary's. I'm just really proud of the girls. I don't know if a lot of people gave us a chance at the start of the year, but the girls really played hard, we had great leadership and we came out and got the job done."

Dalhousie dictated play early on, going on a 10-3 run which lead to a 25-17 first set win. The Tigers would relinquish the second set to Saint Mary's 24-26 and it looked like they would be in for another gruelling five set match until Dalhousie began taking advantage of poor service play from Saint Mary's.

The Tigers would go on to win the last two sets by an identical score of 25-20. The Huskies finished with an ace to error ratio of 0 compared to +8 from the Tigers.

"That's where the rally starts on both sides," said Rick Scott on the importance of the service game. "I think we did a good job and obviously at the end to go on that five point run serving, with two or three aces was key for us. Otherwise we may have been playing a fifth set."

The Subway player of the game for the Tigers was Julie Theisen (Middleton, N.S.) with six kills, two aces, 17 digs and three blocks. Other standout players for Dalhousie were Anna Dunn-Suen (an AUS first team all-sar from Halifax, N.S.) with 16 kills, 14 digs and two blocks, and Mieke Dumont (an AUS all-rookie team member from Kamloops, B.C.) who had eleven kills, five aces and 16 digs.

Subway player of the game for Saint Mary's was Shelby Michaels (an AUS first team all-star from Mill Bay, B.C.) with 17 kills, two aces and 11 digs.

Dalhousie has two weeks off before they head to the CIS national championship at the University of Toronto beginning Feb. 26.

"It's gonna be tough," said Rick Scott. "It's a privilege to be going to nationals. We're taking a couple days to relax, then we're gonna get fired up to represent the AUS."

Championship MVP honours went to the Tigers' Dunn-Suen. She was also named a championship all-star along with teammate Abby Czenze, Véronique Carroll of the Université de Moncton, Jacqueline Sebetovsky of UNB, Shelby Michaels of SMU and Rachel Windhorst (AUS regular season most valuable player) also of SMU.


Source: Rob Trites for UNB Sports Communications