UNB volleyballers Impressive

    University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds proved to be inhospital hosts for teams from the Quebec Universites Conference in men's university volleyball action on the weekend at the UNB main gym.

UNB hosted the second in a series of interlocking matches between teams from the Quebec and Atlantic Conferences.

UNB didn't treat their guests kindly, winning three of their four matches over the three-day schedule which began with three games on Friday.

After losing 3-1 to Laval of Quebec City on Friday, the V-Reds beat Sherbrooke 3-1 and Universite de Montreal 3-0 on Saturday and was a 3-2 winner over McGill of Montreal on Sunday morning.

V-Reds prevailed 15-11 in the final set in Sunday's match against McGill. UNB won the first set, 25-23, and the third, 25-19 while McGill was a 25-23 winner in the second and forced the tie-breaker with a 25-22 win in the fourth set.

Ryley Boldon had 15 kills pacing UNB. Tyler Veehuis added 11 kills as did Stephane Fontaine. Boldon and and Veehuis each had 29 asissts. Matthew Mosseler led McGill with 23 kills while Yannick Pirali had 22.

Kyle Blanchard had 10 kills while Boldon and Veehuis each had nine as UNB swept Montreal 26-24, 26-24 and 25-16 on Saturday. Maxim Morin had 10 kills for Montreal.

UNB needed four sets to thwart Sherbrooke also Saturday with set scores being 25-16, 23-25, 27-25 and 25-19 favouring the homeside squad.

Veenhuis had 12 kills to lead UNB while Blanchard added nine. Maxime-Rock Claessen led Sherbrooke with 21 kills.

On Friday, UNB beat Laval in the first set 25-18 but then lost the next three by scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 27-25.

Karl De Grandpre led Laval with 20 kills while Frederic Desbiens added 17 kills and 37 total assists.

Veenhuis had 14 kills to pace UNB with Boldon adding 11 and Blanchard nine. Boldon also had 34 total assists while Veenhuis had 33.

UNB's biggest rival in the Atlantic Conference, perennial champion Dalhousie Tigers, also won three of their four matches, losing 3-2 to Laval in play Saturday.

In regular Atlantic University women's volleyball conference action, UNB Varsity Reds won their first match in six starts, upending Universite de Moncton 3-1 with set scores being 14-25, 25-13, 31-19 and 29-17 in a wild match. In the clinching fourth set, UdeM led at one point, 22-19 and 24-21 before UNB rallied to win 29-27.

Handling the coaching duties for UNB was long-time assistant James Cress, replacing John Richard who's been battling health issues for the past 2 1/2 weeks. Starry Tanya Paulin of Bathurst also missed the match because of injury.