Sea~Hawks Weekly Preview

This weekend the Sea~Hawks are on the home court in basketball and women’s volleyball. The women’s volleyball will take on Cape Breton Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 2pm in their home opener. The basketball teams will host Saint Mary’s on Saturday (6pm/8pm) and Sunday (11am/1pm) at the Field House. The men’s volleyball will be away at the Interlock tournament in Fredericton. The swimmers will be looking to see some personal bests at the AUS Invitational at Dalhousie.

Women’s Volleyball

Memorial’s women’s volleyball team will return to the court this weekend when they take on the Cape Breton University Capers in their AUS home opener. Friday night will be the first time the team has competed since opening their AUS season at Interlock back at the end of October, and their first competition against another AUS team. The Capers currently sit 5th in the AUS with a record of 1-5 after picking up a straight set victory over the X-Women last weekend. With 10 of 12 returning players from last year’s lineup, Cape Breton will bring a lot of veteran leadership to the court on Friday night including third year middle Vanessa St. Georges who led the Capers in blocks last season.

On the Sea~Hawks side, fourth years Sarah Strickland, Sasha Wilkins, and Nicole Jolliffe will look to carry a young team to the AUS playoffs this season starting with a win over the Capers. With many members of the team battling illness, head coach Terry Mosher will have his work cut out for him as he tries to put together a winning lineup.

The women will take the court Friday night at 7pm in the final of Memorial’s 2009 Go Pink events in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, before closing out their weekend on Saturday afternoon at 2pm at the Field House.

Men’s Volleyball

The Sea~Hawks men’s volleyball team will face their toughest weekend yet when they travel to the University of New Brunswick for the first Interlock tournament of the season, and their final matches before the break. The men will see their first action against the winless McGill Redmen when they open the tournament on Friday evening at 6pm. The Redmen will look for an offensive spark from Quebec Student Sports Federation (QSSF) 2008-09 Second Team All-Star Matthew Mosseler, while libero Brad Jolliffe will take care of things defensively for the ‘Hawks.

On Saturday, the Sea~Hawks will play their first match against a talented Montréal Carabins team featuring QSSF MVP Emmanuel André-Morin, who was second in the CIS in scoring averaging 6.08 points per game last season.

In their second match of the day, the Sea~Hawks will play the Sherbrooke Vert et Or, who are led by fourth year right side and 08/09 QSSF First Team All-Star Simon Girard. Match times are 11am against Montréal and 8pm against Sherbrooke.

The Sea~Hawks will play a final match on Sunday at 11am when they meet the Laval Rouge et Or who are currently ranked 4th in the CIS.

Memorial will look for rookie left side, and current scoring leader Josh Ennis to have a big game against a Laval team featuring last season’s QSSF Libero of the Year Nicolas Quirion. The Sea~Hawks will need to play their best volleyball of the season if they hope to pick up their first win of the year.

Swimming

The men’s and women’s swim teams will hit the water in Halifax this weekend as they see their first AUS competition of the season at the AUS Invitational hosted by the Dalhousie Tigers.

Last weekend the swimmers travelled to Lethbridge, Alberta for the final meet of a home-and-home dual meet with the Pronghorns. Despite losing, both teams have performed well early in the season posting personal best times for multiple swimmers. 2008-09 AUS Rookie of the year David Forbes had success last Saturday in Alberta winning three of four sprint events, and earlier this season was only 0.22 seconds off CIS qualifying time in the 50m Freestyle.

On the women’s side sophomore swimmers Dayna Hogan and Kelsie Rogers are both coming off winning weekends that saw Hogan set four personal bests with two first and two third place finishes. Rogers added two of her personal best times of her own, winning the 100m and 50m Freestyle events. Both teams will be in the pool on Saturday and Sunday as swimmers aim to qualify for the CIS Championships at the end of the season.

Women’s Basketball

After a disappointing split on the road against Dalhousie last weekend, Memorial’s women’s basketball team will look to get back on track when they host the Saint Mary’s Huskies at the Field House this weekend.

The Huskies come into the weekend tied for 1st in the AUS, on a three game winning streak that the Sea~Hawks will look to end. Rookie guard Justine Colley has been a great addition to a Huskies’ team that finished at the bottom of the AUS last season. Colley currently leads the team in scoring averaging 16.2 points per game, followed closely by fifth year forward Laure Pitfield with (15.8 ppg).

Coach Partridge was not happy with his team’s effort against the Tigers last weekend and will look to sophomores Grace Fishbein and Ally Forsey to turn things around. With eight points on the line, this weekend is an important one for the Sea~Hawks if they want to get back to the top of the AUS standings.

The Sea~Hawks will meet the Huskies on Saturday night at 6pm and again on Sunday morning at 11am.

Men’s Basketball

The Sea~Hawks’ men’s basketball team are still in search of their first win of the season and will have two more chances to do so this weekend when they host the Saint Mary’s Huskies at the Field House.

Saint Mary’s are currently on a three game winning streak and sit 4th in the AUS. With the help of 2008-09 AUS First Team All-Star guards Joey Haywood and Mark McLaughlin who currently lead the Huskies in scoring, Saint Mary’s has proved that they are a team not to be taken lightly, having defeated the 9th ranked CIS Capers at the beginning of the season.

Memorial has struggled to put a full game together yet this season, and will need Ante Samodol and Steve Earles to dominate the glass if they hope to take down the Huskies. The Sea ~ Hawks will look to team captain Jason Shepherd and leading scorer Mike Helsby to help out offensively and pick up an important win.

The men will take the court on following the women at 8pm on Saturday evening, and 1pm Sunday afternoon.

Saturday evening’s game will feature the Nita Chambers (Sutton) Awards Sweeps and a tribute to former Memorial athlete and coach Clarence Sutton.