Fredericton, NB – The St. Thomas University Tommies were crowned the Atlantic Collegiate Athletics Association men's volleyball champions after winning the best-of three series against the Universite Sainte Anne Dragons. STU won the second match by a score of 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-15) and swept the series 2-0.
This is the Tommies' second title in the past two seasons and coach, Henri Mallet, was elated for his players and staff after a long and uncertain season. The ACAA Coach of the Year said, "It feels great after the two-year gap. We know there were going to be a lot of unknowns but the guys were focused and once they were on the court we played well and I'm proud of the guys."
The Dragons gave STU a big challenge in the first set. They kept the scoreboard ticking but STU managed to win the first 25-22. The rest of the match was dominated by the Tommies and they were relentless at times. They took the 2nd and 3rd sets by a score of 25-15.
The entire team stepped up today and worked for each other. ACAA All-Star, Christian Christie (Langley, BC), and ACAA Player of the Year, Gustavo Lobato (Aracaju, BRA), were the pick of the bunch. Christie finished the match with a game-high 17 points and 14 kills. Lobato did a lot of his damage through his serves and came away with five aces. He finished with 12 points, seven kills, and a game-high 10 digs.
Alec Cottreau led the Dragons attack with 9 kills, and Jeremy Bourque finished with 6.
The Tommies' coach was very complimentary of the entire team. He said, "That's our strength, we've got a really deep floor, we've got guys that can score and we're really fortunate to have that."
Mallet also talked about how the team's mentality pushed them towards the title this year. He said, "We've got a lot of third, fourth, fifth year guys who have won and lost championships so they knew what it took to win that."
The Tommies will await the other conference winners and final seeding to be announced for the CCAA Men's Volleyball Championships hosted by Cegep Limoilou March 25th-27th.
Recap: Brandon Salick
Photo: SRM Photography