Fredericton, NB – The St. Thomas University Tommies moved to 7-0 on the season with a straight set victory over the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves, 25-15, 25-19, 25-13.
It was a back-and-forth affair to open the set, with the teams exchanging points all the way to 7-7, but then the Tommies would reel off a 12-2 run and wouldn't look back.
The second set began much like the first, with the teams exchanging points to 9-9 before the Tommies began to pull away. The offence was slightly disjointed for the Tommies, leaving the door open for the Seawolves.
"We have a pretty experienced team out there," said Tommies' head coach, Henri Mallet, when asked if he said anything to his team to get them back on track. "It's great as a coach, you can just sit back and enjoy because they have been playing together and they are in control and they are on the court."
The three headed monster of Christian Christie (Langley, BC), Garret Dickson (Miramichi, NB) and Gustavo Lobato (Aracaju, BR) combined for 38 points in the match, and veteran setter Henry Doucet (Truro, NS) distributed the ball effectively throughout the match. Simon Anctil and Ryan Farrell would lead the Seawolves with 9 and 8 points, respectively.
"It was definitely one of our better games this season," said Mallet. "These past couple weeks we have been playing at a pretty high level, and today was definitely our best block defence game of the year. We were able to shut down some of their key players at the net, and when we didn't, we came up with some big digs. It was a really good way to end the first semester."
Both the Tommies and the Seawolves will gave to wait until January for their next league games when they face each other January 14th in Saint John.