The St. Thomas Tommies have tasted defeat for the first time in the 2018-19 season, a 3-2 loss at the hands of their Highway 7 rival, the UNB Saint John Seawolves.
The Seawolves jumped out to 2-0 lead after taking the first two sets 25-21 and 25-23. Despite the scores the Seawolves controlled the first two sets.
"We made way too many unforced errors," said head coach Henri Mallet. "You look at our hitting percentage, .142, that's not going to win you many games in our league."
The Tommies stormed back to take sets three and four, 25-23 and 25-16, and found themselves with a 12-10 lead in the decisive set but couldn't finish the match.
"At the end they made some clutch plays, some clutch digs," said Mallet about the Seawolves down the stretch.
Luke O'Grady (Eastern Barrie, ON) paced the Seawolves offence with 18 kills, while Garret Dickson (Miramichi, NB) had 14 kills out of the middle for the Tommies.
"Garret has tremendous potential," said Mallet of his second-year middle player. "Offensively we got a lot of the matchups we wanted tonight. I mean on their side Zane [Hamilton] is the best blocker in the league, by a lot, so if we can have Garret lined up with other players we can take advantage of that."
The Tommies will look to rebound on Saturday, January 26th when they face the Universite Sainte Anne. The Seawolves will be back in action on the 27th when they travel to Holland College.