ST. JOHN’S, NL – The Saint Mary’s Huskies women’s volleyball team improved to 4-0 on the season, defeating the Memorial Sea-Hawks in four sets (25-13, 16-25, 25-17, 25-19) at the Memorial Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.
#n13 Madison Hann from the Huskies opened up the scoring for Saturday’s match with points coming from each of her first 3 serves. The Huskies gained an early 6-4 lead before the Sea-Hawks were forced into a timeout while being down 9-5 in hopes to disrupt the Huskies momentum. Some service errors from the Sea-Hawks allowed the Huskies to climb to a 12-6 lead. A block and a kill from Sea-Hawks #20 Taylor Johnston got the Sea-Hawks back in the game at 12-8. The Huskies dominated the serving in the first set gaining an abundance of points from them. The Sea-Hawks lacked tightness in their blocking, giving the Huskies points off of their kills that would otherwise be blocked. The Huskies gained the last point of the first set off of a kill by #10 Brea De Souza that was blocked but fell out to win 25-13.
The Huskies gained the first point of the second set off of a hard kill from #17 Emilia Mikanovich. The Sea-Hawks then fired back to tie the set 1-1 off of a kill from #6 Nella Woelfel. The Sea-Hawks gained their first lead of the game off of some strong plays from #20 Taylar Johnston. The Sea-Hawks gave away some points during the middle of the second due to service errors. The teams were trading points for the majority of the set as each team was fighting to be on top. Once again, Sea-Hawks #20 Taylar Johnston completed a series of digs, blocks, and kills to give the Sea-Hawks a 16-12 lead that forced the Huskies into a timeout. Johnston was unaffected by the timeout and immediately gained a point off of a service ace. The Huskies then called another timeout at 19-12 allowing them to close the lead to 19-15. The Sea-Hawks responded with 5 consecutive unanswered points and managed to gain the set off of a kill from #6 Nella Woelfel 25-16.
The Sea-Hawks opened the scoring in the third set with a kill from #8 Adria Butt that was loosely blocked by the Huskies and fell short. The teams traded points, tying at each number up until the Huskies managed to gain a 2 point lead at 10-8. Multiple service and attack errors from both sides allowed the teams to trade points. The Huskies then tightened their play and were able to gain a 12-8 lead. After some fumbles from the Huskies, the Sea-Hawks were able to get themself back in the game at 13-12 until the Huskies once again found some consistency to gain a commanding 19-14 lead. Some strategic tips from the Huskies allowed them to settle within 3 points of the set at 22-16. After a hard fought set, the Huskies ultimately came out on top 25-17.
The Huskies gained the first point of the fourth set off of a Sea-Hawks attack error. They gained 3 consecutive points before forcing the Sea-Hawks into a timeout. #14 Halle Worth got the Sea-Hawks on the board with a fast paced kill. Multiple attacking errors from the Sea-Hawks allowed the Huskies to command a 7-1 lead. Huskies #7 Olivia Bell had some intense kills to demand the Huskies on the court. The Sea-Hawks were behind 16-7 until #8 Adria Butt gained two consecutive service aces. Huskies #17 Emilia Mikanovich produced some hard-earned digs in the fourth set to help her team stay ahead. Sea-Hawks #16 Lydia Grawer produced a series of kills to try and get Memorial back in the game but the Huskies were able to hold on to a commanding lead for the remainder of the set. The fourth and final set concluded at 25-19 for the Huskies as they take the game 3 sets to 1.
The Huskies were led by Olivia Bell (LaHave Islands, NS) and Alena Piatukhova (Minsk, Belarus), who each posted a game-high 11 kills. Bell added seven digs and Piatukhova added two blocks and a service ace. Megan Bruhm (Hubley, NS), chipped in eight kills, four digs and a game-high five blocks, while Emilia Mikanovich (Minsk, Belarus) added nine kills, four digs and two blocks. Setter Taylor Lougheed (Calgary, AB) recorded a game-high 34 assists along with five digs and a block.
The Sea-Hawks were led by Nella Woelfel (St. John’s, NL) and Lydia Grawer (St. Louis, MO) who each recorded nine kills, while Sarah Trowbridge (Sunnyside, NL) posted a game-high 13 digs.
The Huskies are the lone undefeated team in the AUS after two weeks of play with a 4-0 record. They’ll be back on home court next weekend, as they host the Dalhousie Tigers (2-2) on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. at the Homburg Centre.
The Sea-Hawks loss drops their record to 0-4 on the season. They’ll have next week off, before welcoming the Dalhousie Tigers for a pair of matches on Friday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 18 in St. John’s, NL.