The reigning Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association Champion St. Thomas Tommies men’s volleyball team open their season on Sunday, October 31st and it can’t come soon enough for the team.
The Tommies haven’t played a league game since they hosted the 2020 CCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship just as the pandemic struck.
“We were lucky to be able to play some exhibition matches versus UNB and UNBSJ last year, but that doesn’t compare to the level of excitement in our gym right now as we get ready for our regular season and playing meaningful matches for the first time since hosting CCAAs,” said Tommies’ head coach, Henri Mallet.
The team lost a pair of league award winners in Dallas Melnick (ACAA All-Star and Rookie of the Year) and Nathan Brown (ACAA Libero of the Year), but Mallet’s recruiting class has the Tommies poised for another championship run.
“The team will be very different, but I think that’s the reality of university sports,” said Mallet. “Each year, you lose some key players but hopefully, we were able to give the tools needed to some of our younger guys who will now need to lead the way.”
“For the first time in a long time, we’ll have a starting line-up with lots of 3rd and 4th year guys and should be able to compete with any teams,” added Mallet.
Those new faces include outside hitters Gustavo Lobato, Austin Hamilton and Liam Graves, middle Kevin Douglas and liberos Austin Ly and Alex Frederickson.
“Obviously, Gustavo will play a key role offensively for us, but our roster will be very deep. Both Austin [Ly] and Alex have the potential to be top level liberos in this league, and they’ll both be fighting for some playing time this year. Kevin and Liam bring some height that we’ve been lacking over the last few years. And finally, Austin [Hamilton] will become a complete outside player and has very high ceiling.”
Returning to the Tommies will be ACAA Player of the Year Christian Christie and joining him from the last ACAA All-Star team is Garret Dickson. Rounding out the group of veterans will be Henry Doucet, Austin Atkinson, Brendan Murphy, Braden Cook, Adam McDougall, and Benson Garchinski.
“After having relied on young teams over the last few years, we are finally at the point that we have a mature program,” said Mallet about where his team is right now. “With some of the goals that we have and the high level of accountability that we expect out of our team, having the chance to lean on 4th year guys like Chris and Garret is huge for us.”
Mallet will also lean on the leadership of Doucet, Murphy, McDougall and Cook, who will all be huge parts if the Tommies are to succeed this season.
“We asked a lot of Henry in leading our offence as our setter since his rookie season, so to have him in his 3rd year now will make a big difference for us. Then guys like Murph and Braden, who put in the work over the last few years will have to play key roles for us to be successful. Adam, who keeps impressing us with his high volleyball IQ, will once again play a key role on the outside after a solid rookie season in 2019-2020 and we expect solid support from Austin Atkinson and Benson Garchinski coming off the bench when needed.”
Despite the long layoff and influx of new players, Mallet isn’t straying away from his ultimate goal, of competing for a National Championship.
“We are still trying to figure out a few things with our system with some new players playing important roles or returning guys playing different positions, so we’ll need to get comfortable with the system over the season but we are confident that if we can execute it and take care of the ball on our side of the net, we should have some success and hopefully get to compete for a National Championship.”