Tommies Claim 9th ACAA Banner With 3-0 Sweep of Hurricanes

The St. Thomas are 2020 ACAA Men's Volleyball Champions after defeating the Holland Hurricanes in 3 straights sets during Sunday's championship final.  The win caps off a championship season for the Tommies who finished first place during the regular season.

The teams stayed close throughout the opening set until the Tommies separated themselves late in the set, eventually grabbing a 25-21 set win.

"The boys came out hungry today and we were able to maintain a high level of focus for the entire match," said ACAA Coach of the Year, Henri Mallet. "They followed the game plan to a "T" and they made the adjustments needed to be successful." 

Holland looked to answer back in the 2^nd set, once again pushing the eventual champions before losing by an identical score of 25-21

With the championship in their grasp, the Tommies pushed hard to gain an advantage in the third set. With a 24-19 lead, freshman Adam McDougall served out the winning point as the Tommies stormed the court to celebrate their championship win.

"The boys played a real mature game and I believe the volleyball experience of the group played a major role in it," added Mallet. "We didn't ride the highs or the lows and just played our game. We were focused on the task and didn't let Holland go on big runs while being able to cut down on unforced errors to continually put pressure on them."

In the loss, Holland was led by Simon Archibald who had 11 kills on the day. Nick Blewett added 6 kills for the Hurricanes.

The champion Tommies were led on attack by ACAA Rookie of the Year Dallas Melnick who had 9 kills.  ACAA Player of the Year, Christian Christie, chipped in with 5 kills of his own.

"Dallas was obviously an important factor in our win," said Mallet. "He scored some big 'out of system' points for us and served extremely tough. He also set up some good blocks for us and that helped us be successful with our block defence and therefore gave us the advantage at the end of the match."

The 2020 CCAA Men's Volleyball Nationals will now be played in Fredericton at St. Thomas from March 12^th-14^th. Because the Tommies had already secured a spot as the host school, Holland will also travel to nationals as ACAA representatives.