2009-10 UNB Women's Volleyball Update # 13
Last Week:
The V-Reds trained all week before taking part in a busy home weekend at the LB Gym. They played Dalhousie on Saturday at 8:00pm and Saint Mary’s on Sunday at 3:00pm. The UNB Men’s team also hosted Dalhousie on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s match also marked the final home match for 5th year co-captain Barb Vriends (the only graduating athlete the team loses for the 2010-11 season). Vriends was honoured prior to Sunday’s match. A small reception was held for alumni, parents and supporters on Saturday evening prior to the women’s match at which time the 2009-10 Gail McKinnon Memorial Award was presented to 3rd year left-side Asia Leavins (Calgary, AB). It was also “Think Pink” and “Shoot of the Cure” weekend at UNB with both basketball teams hosting Cape Breton on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. A portion of the gate as well as several fundraising initiatives took place and raised over $4,000 as well as much needed awareness in the fight against Breast Cancer. We would like to say a big “Thank You” to all those who supported this cause and look forward to doing it again next season. After being side-lined due to a knee injury suffered early in the Varsity Reds match on January 9th at Saint Mary’s, second year libero Monica Jones returned to the court for these matches. Jones, who is the team’s top passer and who has been ranked within the top five in the conference digs, missed 7½ conference matches.
DALHOUSIE 2 @ UNB 3 (26-24, 23-25, 17-25, 25-21, 15-13)
Dalhousie jumped out to a 16-11 lead only to see UNB come back and steal the first set. The second set looked much the same with UNB coming back to take the lead late but the Tigers responded and tied the match 1-1. Dalhousie ran away quick in game three to go up 2-1 in the match. The V-Reds did the same in game four to force a fifth set. UNB trailed the entire fifth set until they took a 12-11 lead, but the Tigers scored twice to hold a 13-12 lead. After a Varsity Reds time out UNB would score three straight to take the match 15-13 in the deciding set. AUS Player of the Match Jill Blanchard (Saint John, NB) finished with 13 kills, 19 points and 20 digs. Third year middle Tanya Paulin (Bathurst, NB) had 10 kills, 4 blocks and 14 points while rookie right-side Rebecca Glancy (Toronto, ON) 11 kills, 16 digs and 13 points.
SAINT MARY’S 0 @ UNB 3 (25-20, 25-22, 25-15)
The Varsity Reds looked like a different team right from the start. UNB led most of the first set winning 25-20. Third year middle Tanya Paulin (Bathurst, NB) was done for the afternoon after set one as she fought a nagging injury and couldn’t continue. Rookie Rebecca Glancy (Toronto, ON) moved into the middle and third year right-side Asia Leavins (Calgary, AB) came onto the floor to have a great match. In game two Saint Mary’s actually owned a 17-10 lead but the V-Reds clawed their way back behind some big digs from second year libero Monica Jones (Ajax, ON) who finished with a match high 20 digs and also helped UNB pass a season high passing percentage. Once the Varsity Reds stole the second set they led most of the third to take the match 3-0. AUS Player of the Match was 5th year middle Barb Vriends (Cove Head, PEI) playing in her last home game of her career she had 19 kills with only 3 errors on 28 swings, 21 points and hit a match high of .571%. Rookie Rebecca Glancy (Toronto, ON) had another strong match with 11 points while hitting .400% playing both in the middle and right-side positions.
Other Conference Results:
Moncton 1 @ Acadia 3
STFX 3 @ Cape Breton 2
Cape Breton 0 @ Acadia 3
Saint Mary’s 3 @ Moncton 1
Dalhousie 3 @ Moncton 0
Coach’s Comments:
“For the second straight Saturday evening in a row we didn’t play very well and found a way to barely squeeze out the win. Defensively we weren’t very good and that resulted in us hitting for a very low hitting percentage. I don’t know how but we found a way. Then for the second straight Sunday afternoon we came out and were a much better team. It was one of our top efforts of the year for sure and I thought our two co-captains Barb and Jill were real strong for us.”
UNB Team Record:
League 9 - 7
Exhibition 12 - 2
Overall 21 - 9
Upcoming:
The V-Reds train all week before heading back out onto the road early Saturday morning for their final two matches of the regular season. Saturday they will drive to Wolfville, NS to take on Acadia at 7:00pm and then drive back as far as Truro, NS (making it a very long day) to sleep for the night. Early Sunday morning they depart Truro, NS for Moncton, NB to play Moncton at 2:00pm. The following weekend the team travels to Halifax, NS on Thursday to take part in the Atlantic Conference Championships being hosted by Saint Mary’s from February 19th-21st.