Molson Exhibition Weekend Summary

Sea~Hawks go 10-2 on Exhibition Weekend

Swimming
At the 3rd Annual Sea~Hawks versus Newfoundland High School Swimmers Swim Meet Memorial had its strongest showing easily winning both the girls and boys sides of the meet. The Sea~Hawks men's team beat the High School Boys 71 to 41points with teams scoring points for 1st and 2nd place finishes. The Sea-Hawks women's team scored 68 points versus the High School Girls 44 points.

Top performers at the meet for the women included sophomore Leah Tomblin who touched the wall first in the 25m backstroke and the 75m backstroke. Tomblin also joined her Sea~Hawk teammates to take top spot in two relays, the 4X75 medley and the 4X25 freestyle.

On the men’s side it was David Forbes leading the way taking top spot in the 75m butterfly and the 75m backstroke. He also had success with his teammates in the relay events, as the Sea~Hawks won the 4X75 medley, the 4X75 freestyle, and the 4X50 medley relays.

Other individual wins for the Sea~Hawks were:
2nd year Kelsey Alexander 25 Butterfly
1st year Erin Daly 25 Breaststroke
2nd year Dayna Hogan 200 Freestyle
2nd year Kelsie Rogers 75 Butterfly
3rd year Jon Furlong 25 Butterfly
1st year Matthew Avis 25 Freestyle
1st year Richard Hibbs 75 Breaststroke
5th year Tim Rusted 75 Freestyle

Head coach Brad Hutton was pleased with the team’s performance at the meet. He said, “The meet was a good tune up for the Sea~Hawks vs. Pronghorns Dual Meet on October 17th. This meet against the University of Lethbridge will be our first varsity home meet in over twenty years.”

Men’s Volleyball
Friday night the Memorial Sea~Hawks men’s volleyball team started their season off with a bang, picking up a win in exhibition competition. The Memorial began a three game weekend series against the Royal Military College Paladins. With a shaky error-filled start to the match, the Sea~Hawks were able to turn things around, winning in three straight sets (29-27, 25-23, 25-18). Rookie middle Nathan Tilley recorded 8 kills in his Sea~Hawks debut, tied for the team lead with player of the game Scott Hickman.

On Saturday night, the Sea~Hawks took to the court for a rematch with the Paladins, who were looking to rebound from Friday night’s 3-0 loss. The Sea~Hawks came to the court flat, and were unable to put up much of an offense due to a less than stellar serve receive. In the second set the ‘Hawks were able to turn things around, but were in much tougher against an RMC team hungry for the win. The Sea~Hawks went on to win the match in five sets. Player of the game for the Sea~Hawks was setter and captain Brad Pitcher.

On Sunday afternoon Memorial took the weekend sweep of RMC, with a 3-1 win. In a game where coach Luke Harris looked to his inexperienced players to contribute, the Sea~Hawks were able to pull out a tight victory against an equally inexperienced RMC team. Player of the game was Jesse Simms.
All three games were held in the cozy confines of the MUN gym. On Saturday and Sunday RMC impressed the crowd as the team sang the national anthem.
The men’s volleyball team will host the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday, October 31st when they kick off their AUS season in front of the home crowd at the Field House.

Women’s Basketball
The women’s basketball team hosted Laurentian University for a three game Exhibition Weekend series.

Friday Memorial 68 Laurentian 62
On Friday the Sea~Hawks started their season with a win, defeating the University of Laurentian Lady Vees by a score of 68-62 in front of a sold out crowd at the new home of City Stars Basketball at the YMCA gym.

The first half was tightly contested with the Sea~hawks looking to fastbreak when the opportunity presented itself which helped to counter U of L's post game. Erin Mullaley and Brittany Dalton both did a fantastic job of finding open team mates. Both teams had trouble adjusting to the smaller gym with a large number of turnovers. The halftime score was 33-32 for the Lady Vees.

The game remained closely contested with Laurentian enjoying a two point lead at the 6:45 mark of the fourth quarter. However, Memorial pulled their game together, outscoring their opponents 16 to 8 to close the fourth. Through both fast break lay-ups and showing patience in the half court Memorial did not allow the Lady Vee’s a chance to get back in the game.
Dalton played a very solid game at point guard directing the offense and showing good leadership. She had 14 points, 5 assists, 8 rebounds, and 2 steals. Ally Forsey was a force on the boards as well with 8 rebounds while Erikca Gratton put up 10 points battling down low. Grace Fishbein was tops with 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a game high 3 steals. Fishbein also made the play that sealed the victory when she missed a free with 2:22 left in the game but followed up her own rebound to get fouled again to sink 2 free throws that proved to be daggers for the Lady Vee’s.

Player of the game for Memorial was awarded to Fishbein.

Laurentian’s Lisa Furchner and Darrah Bumstead each had double-doubles. Furchner had 13 points and 11 boards while Bumstead twelve points and 14 rebounds.

Saturday Memorial 68 Laurentian 64
The Sea~Hawks won another competitive game Saturday night beating the Laurentian University Lady Vee’s 68-64. Brittany Dalton was selected HITS FM player of the game for MUN.

Early in the first Memorial jumped out to an early eight point lead by pushing the tempo and scoring easy fast-break points. However, after some foul trouble and defensive lapses the lead shrunk to two by the end of the first quarter.

Dalton and Grace Fishbein hit big shots to open the second quarter, countering the outside shooting of Laurentian that stayed consistent for the entire quarter. The final five minutes of the half were dominated by the Lady Vee’s as they held Memorial without a point to take a 35-29 into the half.

Memorial rookie Emily Jameson was a spark in the second half as she breathed life back into Memorial with aggressive play of the bench. Jameson scored 6 points and added an assist during a span of a few minutes to spearhead a run that brought the Seahawks back and turned the momentum.

The fourth quarter was a back and forth battle as both teams could only manage to trade baskets. Rookie Jennifer Parsons would help Memorial regain the lead with 4:06 left in the game.

A Laurentian technical foul with under a minute left put the game out of reach as senior Erin Mullaley calmly sank the resulting two free throws. Fishbein was top rebounder for Memorial with nine and Dalton scored a game-high 23 along with 6 assists and 3 steals.

Saturday night’s game was a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The Sea~Hawks wore special pink t-shirts in their warm-up which were sold during the game by varsity volleyball players. Fans took part in a halftime Frisbee toss to help raise funds and awareness for breast cancer awareness and treatment.

Sunday Memorial 91 Laurentian 88 (2OT)
Closing out the weekend series at Baltimore High School in Ferryland, Memorial picked up their third win in a thrilling, crowd pleasing double overtime victory. Laurentian led play for the first three quarters before letting the Sea~Hawks back into the game in the fourth quarter. The Sea~Hawks showed great composure and eventually edged the Lady Vees for the victory, giving the ‘Hawks a 3-0 sweep in games over the weekend. High scorers were not available.

Men’s Basketball
The men’s basketball team was in for a test with a two game series against the MUN Alumni team on Friday and Saturday.

Friday MUN Alumni 69 Memorial 54
The Sea~Hawks had difficulty with the MUN Alumni team throughout the game on Friday, with the alumni gaining separation in the fourth quarter on their way to a 69-54.

The first half was extremely close with both teams going at each other on defense and fighting hard for every rebound or loose ball as bragging rights were on the line. The Sea~Hawks led their older counterparts by only one point at halftime.

In the second half experience and outside shooting won out for the Alums. Mike Woods, who graduated in 1995, hit a couple of key shots for the alumni team. Matt Chapman provided a touch matchup for Steven Earles down low. George English, last season’s leader led the alumni team with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Robbie Habib was the top performer for the Sea~Hawks with 15 points and team-high 9 rebounds including 6 on the defensive glass.

Saturday MUN Alumni 93 Memorial 80
On Saturday night the Sea~Hawks played their first action of the season on the floor of the Field House. Ultimately, the Sea~Hawks suffered another loss at the hands of the Alumni team, going down 93-80.

Matt Chapman, the center who played at Memorial from 1997-2001 was the story of the game, dominating on the inside with 31 points, including 15 points from the foul line. Justin Halleran, who graduated in 2007, added 20 for the alumni team.

Memorial’s Robbie Habib was very effective shooting the ball from the outside early in the game.

Memorial was much more patient on offense on Saturday looking to find the right match up to attack. Coach Benoite had his team use fullcourt pressure and force the tempo by fast breaking. Memorial took high percentage shots most of the game with their passing but unfortunately seen a lot of their shots rim out. The halftime score was 35-28 for the Alums.

A bright stretch saw the varsity team go on a twelve to four run over three minutes and third year Jason Sheppard converted a 3 point play off a tough offensive rebound to cut the lead to three in the third quarter. That was as close as the game would get.

Past Weekend Summaries

Oct. 4th

Sept. 20th

Sept. 13th