Banner day for UNB volleyball

Sunday is a day to remember for volleyball at the University of New Brunswick.

Each of the men's and women's teams at the school won Atlantic University Sport championships in the sport, and each on the road in Nova Scotia.

The most dramatic was the men's team coached by Dan McMorran winning its first title since 1979 with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the perennial champion Dalhousie Tigers yesterday in Halifax.

That came on the heels of an emotional five-set victory at home on Friday night in which UNB spotted the Tigers a 2-1 lead only to win the last two sets 25-20 and 15-12 in the tie-breaker to put them on the verge of victory.

They completed the deal and avoided a third match in the best-of-three final yesterday at Dalplex. Set scores were 18-25, 25-19, 25-22, 24-26, 15-12.

"This is a special time for UNB volleyball, our players, our supporters, and our alumni who have been with us every step,'' said McMorran, in his seventh season as the head coach. "This is for those people as much as it is for us. I've never been more proud of a group of individuals.''

It marked UNB's first victory at Dalhousie since Feb. 15 of 2008 and ended Dal's 24-year hold on the Atlantic title. It'll be UNB representing the conference at the national CIS tournament slated March 4-6 at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C.

Winning their second Atlantic title in four years and 19th overall were the women V-Reds, sweeping top-seed Saint Mary's Huskies 25-9, 25-22 and 25-15 in Sunday's final of the six-team tournament hosted by Cape Breton University.

V-Reds, who came in as the second-seed, had to knock off Dalhousie Tigers 3-1 in semifinal play Saturday to earn their way into Sunday's final. The Huskies eliminated St. Francis Xavier X-Women 3-0 in the other semi.

Fifth-year players Jill Blanchard, who was named tournament most valauble player, and Erica Hay dominated in the final, combining for 15 kills, five aces and 19 digs. UNB player of the match Amandas Bakker had 25 assists while second year Emma Hunt and Rebecca Glancy each turned in outstanding performaces, said head coach John Richard. Tanya Paulin was also a tournament all-star. Kerri Smit led Saint Mary's with 11 kills in the final.

Set scores against Dal were 25-15, 16-25, 25-12 and 25-14. Paulin had 15 points for UNB and was named player of the match. Hunt had 11 kills for UNB.

"I thought we did a good job staying in the moment. That was the key to the weekend,'' said Richard. "We were real prepared, stayed focused on our performance and we let the outcome be a surprise.''

UNB will represent the conference at the national CIS tournament slated for Laval University in Quebec City March 4-6. The team will leave Fredericton by bus on the Wednesday to arrive in time for the CIS All-Canadian Awards banquet that night. Blanchard was named a first-team AUS all-star while Hay was a second-team all-star. Rookie Celina Abba was named to the All-Rookie team from the conference.