Last Week:
UNB trained Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before they departed Thursday morning with Moncton for Sherbrooke, QC to take part in their Interlock Tournament. St. FX(2-2), Dalhousie(1-3), Cape Breton(1-3) and Acadia(0-4) already competed in their Interlock event against the Quebec teams at Laval last month. Those schools went a combined 4-12 against Laval (CIS #1 at the time), Montreal (CIS #5 at the time), McGill and Sherbrooke. Memorial, Moncton, Saint Mary’s and the Varsity Reds looked to add to that win total. In 2009-10 the AUS school went a combined 1-31 in the two events.
UNB played Friday against #4 Laval at 2:00pm EST. Laval has been ranked #1 in the CIS every week prior to this week as they dropped 3-2 matches to McGill and Montreal last weekend. The V-Reds then played Sherbrooke, who have captured two CIS National Championships in the past eight years, at 8:00pm EST on Friday evening. On Saturday UNB played #3 Montreal at 4:00pm EST and then Sunday played #9 McGill at 11:00am EST. McGill and UNB are currently tied in the CIS “Top 10” at #9. These marked the last matches before Christmas for UNB as the team was still without 2009-10 AUS 1st Team All-Star Tanya Paulin (Bathurst, NB). The 4th year middle, who hasn’t played or practiced since October 24th, plans to return for the 2nd term.
#9 UNB 1 @ #4 LAVAL 3 (25-21, 22-25, 16-25, 21-25)
Game Notes:
-UNB had leads of 21-19 in game 2 and 19-16 in game 4 only to see Laval fight back to win both sets.
-5th year left-side Jill Blanchard (Saint John, NB) led the V-Reds with 16 kills and 11 digs while 2nd year right-side Emma Hunt (Whitby, ON) had 8 kills and hit an impressive .438%.
-UNB hit .333% while Laval hit .243%.
#9 UNB 3 @ SHERBROOKE 2 (23-25, 25-22, 25-16, 24-26, 5-15)
Game Notes:
-5th year left-side Erica Hay (Sussex, NB) led UNB with 7 kills and 10 points.
-2nd year right-side Emma Hunt had 13 digs.
-The scheduled 8:00pm EST match didn’t start until 9:30pm EST and with the match going five, the V-Reds didn’t return to their hotel until well after midnight EST.
#9 UNB 0 @ #3 MONTREAL 3 (19-25, 21-25, 15-25)
Game Notes:
-2nd year middle Rebecca Glancy (Toronto, ON) and 2nd year left-side Jill Blanchard each had 7 kills and each hit .385% during the match.
-All 12 players dressed for the match saw floor time, including 2nd year Emma Hunt playing libero during the match.
#9 UNB 1 @ #9 McGILL 3 (13-25, 12-25, 25-17, 17-25)
Game Notes:
-2nd year middle Rebecca Glancy had 13 points while 5th year left-side Erica Hay scored 10 points.
-Once again all 12 players dressed saw floor time and Tanya Paulin took part in the warm-up for the second straight day as she continues to progress back to game shape.
Other Conference Results:
Saint Mary’s 3 vs. McGill 0
Moncton 3 vs. Montreal 2
Laval 3 vs. Moncton 0
McGill 3 vs. Memorial 1
Sherbrooke 3 vs. Moncton 1
Saint Mary’s 3 vs. Sherbrooke 1
Laval 3 vs. Memorial 0
McGill 3 vs. Moncton 0
Acadia 0 @ Dalhousie 3
Montreal 3 vs. Saint Mary’s 0
Sherbrooke 3 vs. Memorial 2
Montreal 3 vs. Memorial 0
Laval 3 vs. Saint Mary’s 0
Standings (as of Christmas Break):
1st – Saint Mary’s (12 pts)
Tied 2nd – UNB (10 pts)
Tied 2nd – Moncton (10 pts)
Tied 2nd – Dalhousie (10 pts)
5th – St. FX (8 pts)
6th – Cape Breton (4 pts)
Tied 7th – Acadia (2 pts)
Tied 7th – Memorial (2 pts)
Coach’s Comments:
“Right off the bat against Laval, I thought we did a lot of things pretty well considering that we were right there with a team who has been ranked #1 in the CIS 4 of the first 5 weeks of the season. If we could only have gotten one of those two sets where we had some control late and pushed it to five ... but they dug in and our first contact broke down at crucial times. We also continued to struggle to block any significant amount of balls. The Sherbrooke match was a little frustrating as we did a lot of positive things especially in the first four games even though we didn’t have our best game from an execution standpoint. We couldn’t finish late in game one or four, despite getting what we wanted, especially in game four with leads of 20-18, 22-20 and 23-21. The Montreal match saw us play some different line-ups and use lots of players in hopes of having more energy against McGill Sunday morning. Against McGill we didn’t start well but got much better as the match went on. After winning the third we had big leads early in game four but couldn’t hold off McGill from coming back. Our passing broke down once again as was the theme most of the weekend averaging 1.83 ... which isn’t going to win you many matches against those four teams. To be where we are, tied for 2nd, entering Christmas is ‘okay’ considering we were able to win in some tough places and considering no TP. That said we’ll need to pass and defend better in January and February if we want a chance to be playing in March. With so much parity in our league, if you have a bad weekend or two during 2nd term you’ll find yourself looking up at a lot of teams above you in the standings and the mountain might be too high.”
UNB Team Record:
Conference AUS Play 5 – 1
Conference QC-INTERLOCK Play 0 – 4
Non-CIS Exhibition Play 1 – 0
CIS Exhibition Play 6 – 4
Playoff Results 0 – 0
Overall Record 12 – 9
Upcoming:
The Varsity Reds will now train for a few weeks before taking some time off for the Christmas exam period. After travelling to Toronto, Florida and Ottawa in recent years for training camps and competition, the team will not travel anywhere this Christmas break to train and compete. UNB will take an extended break and return to the court on January 2nd to train in preparation for a big home weekend right off the start. The V-Reds will host Acadia and Saint Mary’s on January 8th-9th at UNB as the men’s team host Memorial that same weekend. After playing 8 of 10 conference games on the road during first term, the Varsity Reds will play 8 conference games in the second half, six of which will be in Fredericton.