In their home opener weekend, the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves men’s volleyball team battled in an exciting four set match against their rival, the St. Thomas University Tommies.
The Seawolves have a young line up this season with only four returning players. Veterans Patrick Kendall, Luke O’Grady, Zane Hamilton, and Jacob McLean started for UNBSJ alongside rookies Jake Glaspy, Tyler Johnson, and Ty Poore.
The Seawolves got off to a flying start in the first set and forced the Tommies to take a time out at 10-4. They kept a lead for the remainder of the set.
The Tommies were unable to get past huge Seawolves’ blocks and back to back blocks by Hamilton finished off the first set for UNBSJ, 25-16.
After taking control in the first set, the Seawolves continued their fury in the second. Hamilton took care of things at the net, Kendall set up strong offensive plays, and O’Grady and Poore landed huge kills.
Two consecutive kills form Poore forced another Tommies time out and the Seawolves started to pull away, 17-13.
The teams exchanged service errors to close out a tighter second set in favor of the Seawolves, 25-21.
The third set ensued with the Seawolves looking to sweep the frustrated Tommies. Big swings from Ryan Dickson and Garrett Dickson gave St. Thomas good momentum early in the set, 8-3. The Seawolves’ head coach, Kyle Blanchard, took a timeout to regroup.
More Seawolves hitting errors allowed the Tommies to capitalize and widen the gap. Blanchard called another timeout at 17-5. The Tommies continued to dominate with powerful kills and tricky serves that the rookie Seawolves couldn’t handle.
An uncharacteristic performance from UNBSJ allowed the Tommies to pick up the third set, 25-10.
Looking to recover from the upset in the third set, the Seawolves gained a four point lead midway through the fourth set. More smart offense from Kendall set up UNB Saint John’s hitters for success.
Hamilton, O’Grady, and Poore picked up kills to further advance the score. At 19-13, UNBSJ looked confident and easily cruised to the finish.
A Tommies serving error ended the fourth set 25-17 for the Seawolves.
Rookie Ty Poore lead UNBSJ’s offence with 14 kills during the match and O’Grady had 13 of his own.
The Seawolves advance to 3-0 in the regular season after their four set win over the Tommies.
UNB Saint John will host the Holland College Hurricanes at the G. Forbes Elliot Athletic Center with back to back games on December 2nd and 3rd. Come out to cheer on your Seawolves as they battle the 4-0 Hurricanes! The games can also be streamed online at acaatv.ca.
