Eight straight for the Reds

Going into the weekend the Varsity Reds women’s volleyball team had won seven consecutive UNB Invitationals. With the likes of Acadia, StFX, Universite de Moncton and Cape Breton University, an eighth would be no easy feat.

The Reds were able to pull off their eighth straight title, sweeping the tournament. This was not an easy road for UNB. The road to the UNB Invitational started Friday afternoon for the Reds as they took on the CBU Capers.

Both teams started off rather slow and looking a bit sloppy. CBU’s first pass was rarely on target, while UNB was giving away points at the net. After the first few points, UNB settled down and started to take advantage of CBU’s sloppy play.

Fifth year left side Erica Hay (who rejoined the team this year after taking a year off to work as a nurse) started to swing away. Fan favourite announcer Eric Moffatt’s nickname for her, Erica “All-Day” Hay, stood true as Hay didn’t show any rust coming off a knee injury at the Dalhousie tournament.

“When I saw Erica this summer she was in the best shape that I have seen her,” said head coach John Richard. “She had a knee injury at DAL, but it was good to see her come back a week later and play the way she did.”

Behind the strong play of Hay, UNB held off CBU to take home a 25-20 opening set victory. The mistakes that were evident in the early stages of the opening set carried over to the second and CBU knotted up the match with a 26-24 victory.

After that, UNB cleaned up their act and were firing on all cylinders. They came out swinging hard and passing well and that carried over to a 34-32 victory in the most exciting set of the tournament. After that thrilling set UNB walked away with a 25-15 win, taking the match three sets to one.

The next team standing in the way of their eighth straight title was StFX. Last season, StFX finished first overall in the AUS standings, so this was going to be a true test. After the opening match jitters had been shaken off, Hay continued her strong play leading the Reds to a four set victory over the X-Women.

A strong opening day had the Reds at 2-0 and feeling good. Next up was the UdeM Aigles Bleues. Based on last year’s standings, this game should have been a cake walk for the Reds, but UdeM came out firing and were not going to be a door mat. In what turned out to be a very exciting game, UNB pulled out a victory in five sets, 3-2 (21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11).

Last up in the round robin was Acadia. With a victory the Reds would solidify their spot in the finals and a guaranteed chance at pushing the Invitational win streak to eight. The powerful combo of fifth year left sides Hay and Jill Blanchard propelled the Reds to a straight set victory (25-17, 25-15, 25-19).

With their spot sealed in the championship game, it was now a matter of who they would face. The play in game featured CBU and Acadia with CBU punching their ticket to the finals for a rematch of the opening game.

UNB wasted no time getting the party started in the championship game. Everything came together in the final match, passing was crisp, blocking was great and there were very few errors.

UNB’s other left side, Jill Blanchard, stepped up her game in the finals. The combination of Blanchard and Hay made formidable tandem.

“We are deep on the left side, and when we have one of them going [Blanchard or Hay] we are a tough team. When we have them both going, we are very tough. We were lucky to have at least one of them going all weekend,” said Richard.

With the left sides firing on all cylinders it didn’t take long for the Capers to succumb to a relentless UNB attack, falling in straight sets 25-23, 27-25, 25-23.

“I really liked our start against CBU in Sunday’s final,” said Richard. “We just let down midway through both of the first two sets. Tanya was very good against two tough middles and I thought Jill played her best match of the weekend.”

It was no surprise that Blanchard was named to the tournament all-star, while Hay brought home tournament MVP honours.

Also named to the all-star was Nicole Davidson (Acadia), Jolaine Gallant (Moncton), Heather Isenor (StFX), Kristen Ryan (CBU) and Hilary Cummings (CBU).