Tommies Defeat Mystics in 5 Set Thriller

Fredericton, NB – In what turned out to be an absolute battle, the St. Thomas University Tommies defeated the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics 3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-12) Saturday night at the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium.

The Tommies kicked things off with a pair of runs, 5-1 to open the match, followed by 8-2 when the two teams were tied at 7-7. The Tommies would go on to win the opener, being led by rookie Abby Lanteigne (Fredericton, NB), who had 5 kills and 4 digs in the opening set alone.

The second set saw the Tommies come out flat, falling behind early 11-4. Tommies' head coach, Don McKay, said his team fell victim to some hot serving from MSVU to open the set. "Their best server is Rhymes, and she went back and we didn't handle her serve very well and all of sudden its 6-0. We fought hard to come back in that set, but it wasn't enough."

The third set looked eerily similar to the second, as the Mystics jumped out to an early lead, but another first year Tommie helped lead a comeback to take the set. Megan Bowen (Fredericton, NB) used her big serve to get the Tommies back into the set.

"She just started the spin serve not that long ago," said McKay about Bowen's serve. "We came into workouts outside of our regular practice time and she started working on it and within an hour she started hitting bombs, so she stayed with it."

The fourth set saw the Mystics gain some momentum, and things could have turned ugly for the Tommies when veteran setter, Caitlin Jones (Fredericton, NB), had to come out of the game, but rookie Julia Campbell (Sussex, NB) came in to finish out the game, and she put her mark on the match on the final point when she rose up for a set, only to dump it into the open court on an unsuspecting Mystics team.

"Caitlin did a great job running our offence before Julia came in," said McKay about his veteran. "Julia's composure was great, and we talked about the setter's dump during a timeout, and she had to recognize it was there and execute and she did."

Marcy MacNeil had a game high 18 kills for the Mystics, while the Tommies were led by Lanteigne, who had 12.

The Tommies move to 6-1 on the season, while the Mystics fall to 4-3. MSVU will head to Saint John on Sunday to face the Seawolves, while the Tommies head to Sackville to play the Mounties, with second place in the ACAA on the line in that match.

Recap- STU Athletics