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Tommies Women’s Volleyball to Rely on Depth at ACAA Championships

Tommies Women’s Volleyball to Rely on Depth at ACAA Championships

By: Shannon Blackmore, BA'19
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The St. Thomas University Tommies women's volleyball team will rely on its depth at the upcoming Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, February 23-25 at the Lady Beaverbrook Gym.

The Tommies, who are hosting the playoff tournament, finished the regular season with a record of 15-6 and are peaking at the right time—they bested the first-place Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics 3-0 and pushed the second-place Holland College Hurricanes to five sets in the final weekend of play.

Tommies head coach Don McKay is looking forward to hosting the tournament and said his team is focusing on limiting their errors and executing their offensive and defensive strategies in preparation for the weekend.

"We'll rely on our captain, Deidra Jones, for leadership and Veronique McGrath who makes a lot of really good decisions with her setting and defense. When they play well we do well," he said. "We get a lot of firepower from our starters and they are all playing some of their best volleyball of the season," he said.

The Tommies will face the University of King's College Blue Devils in the ACAA quarter-final Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm. The Tommies won the season series with the Blue Devils 2-1 and will be looking for contributions from everyone to advance to the semi-finals.

"Our bench has been very good. We have a lot of depth and will be relying on every single player," McKay said. "Going into the first game if our players are producing we'll see it pay off."

Ball control will be key for the Tommies in the tournament, particularly in serving and running their systems.

"We're able to compete with anybody, but if our systems break down and we aren't in control of the ball then it's really anybody's game," McKay said.

The Mount Allison Mounties will take on the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves in the other quarter-final Friday at 1:00 pm. MSVU and Holland College earned a bye to the semi-finals on Saturday.

For full tournament information, click here.