The restart for both the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association and Atlantic University Sport has been announced and St. Thomas University teams begin league play this weekend. The games kick off on Friday with our women’s hockey and volleyball teams on the road and then Saturday features our basketball teams in Moncton and the women’s volleyball team gets to host the Mount Allison University Mounties.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the restart of both the AUS and ACAA seasons, the athletic community is brimming with excitement as the teams have been greenlit to continue their journey to AUS and ACAA playoffs and championships.
“Between mental fitness sessions and at home workouts during lockdown, we couldn’t be more excited to be back on the ice,” said third year Tommies’ women’s hockey goaltender, Caroline Pietroski. “We’re ready to compete and finish what we started last semester.”
The last regular season action the Tommies saw was when the women’s volleyball team travelled to Mount Allison University on November 28th, and the last regular season home action for the Tommies was on the 27th of November. The pandemic has posed numerous challenges for student athletes over the past two seasons, but having to stop play midseason and restart two months later will be a first. With the stoppage in play being combined with the holiday break, most student athletes were away from their teams for over a month, having to train at home or at a local gym.
“We have been practicing five days a week since we returned, with workouts on top of that,” said fifth year outside hitter for the men’s volleyball team, Christian Christie. “During lockdown it was on us players to do our workouts at home to stay in shape. There was a lot of video work too; we just tried to keep as normal of a schedule as possible.”
League play across all sports, in all provinces, will officially resume as of Friday, February 18. Here are the full schedules for the remainder of the season. Prior to February 18th, Capacity will be 50%, while from February 19th moving forward, capacity limits will be at 100% for NB hosted games.
