Picking up two wins this weekend was crucial for the UNB Varsity Reds this weekend as they prepare to take on the Dalhousie Tigers in two weeks time in a fight for home court advantage for the AUS championship.
                         
“We lose one here and that rights the ship in the Atlantic conference,” said UNB head coach Dan McMorran. “We’ve got one in hand against Dalhousie and we’ve played the same amount of games. We’re trying to host the Atlantic championships and to do that we had to win both games this weekend.”
 
Hosting Memorial for back-to-back matches, UNB would sweep the weekend winning six straight sets.
 
Although on paper the weekend was a success, in both matches the Varsity Reds pressure fell off in the third sets of both matches. McMorran knows to win another championship this will need to be improved upon.
 
“I pulled out the stats from yesterday and I showed our hitting percentage in the third set yesterday, which was significantly lower than the first two. At about 18-18 I pulled this out and showed them this is the trend right now.”
 
“It’s hard not to slip into that complacency when you’re playing against a team that you should be doing really well against.”
 
Depth will prove to be important in the final stretch of the season, something the Varsity Reds are working on by getting many different guys into the lineup.
 
“That’s been the plan for the last number of seasons, to throw guys in there in different situations. We took Kyle Blanchard out after the second set (Sunday) and threw Matt Sweet in. Those things happen in a game, people get hurt and people aren’t playing well.”
 
“We want to be able to boost our morale.”
 
The next matches for the Varsity Reds are on the road February 10 and 11 at Dalhousie.