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Weekly Preview Oct. 28, 2010
There is plenty to choose from in Sea~Hawks action this weekend with the women’s volleyball home opener and the final soccer weekend of the season taking place at home. Both volleyball and soccer have their Go Pink Series games this Saturday. Volleyball is front and center in St. John’s with the NLVA Volleyfest, so it should be a great weekend of varsity action at the Field House as Saint Mary’s comes to town. The soccer games on Sunday will be the final varsity home games for the seniors. On the men’s side the games have serious playoff implications. There is also a number of teams on the road. The men’s volleyball team is off to Sherbrooke, Quebec for the first Interlock of the season. The Sea~Hawks cross country team will be competing for the final time this weekend at the AUS Championship at St. FX. The Memorial swim team will be taking part in the second half of the Dual Meet as they travel for a return engagement with Waterloo.
Volleyball
Women’s Volleyball
The women’s volleyball team opens their season at home this weekend as they host the Saint Mary’s Huskies at the Field House on Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 11:00 am. The weekend is the biggest of the season for the volleyball community as the NLVA’s Volley Fest is taking place with over 160 teams in the town for the tournament. Saturday night is also the Sea~Hawks Go Pink Series game, a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
The Sea~Hawks hit the court with a new energy and attitude that gives them promise to compete in a very tight AUS conference after facing their share of adversity last season. The team has an exciting mix of returning talent to go with new rookies that have high hopes to create a winning program.
Memorial will be led once again by Sasha Wilkins but their strength appears to be their depth across the board with a number of very talented players at multiple positions. The Sea~Hawks will work implement a new system that capitalizes on their strengths that will involve low passes and a fast attack.
The Huskies, the reigning AUS champions, opened up their season with two very close games against Dalhousie and Acadia. In the Dalhousie match they managed to hold on, in five sets (25-21, 25-27, 25-15, 26-28, 15-6). The match against Acadia wasn’t much different winning three games in a down-to-the-wire five set match (25-21, 25-21, 23-25, 23-25, 15-13).
The Sea~Hawks games will be held at the Field House on Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 11am. Fans can expect an energetic crowd stemming from Volleyfest.
Kerri Smit leads the Huskies with 35 kill shots in ten matches so far this season (averaging 3.5 kills/game).
Men’s Volleyball
The men’s volleyball team opens their 2010-11 season this weekend as they travel to Sherbrooke Quebec for the first Interlock tournament against the teams of the Quebec conference.
The Sea~Hawks see their core return this season with Nathan Tilley, Drew Stephens, Alex Barrett, and Brad Pitcher. The team has been training hard in anticipation of the season after a competitive exhibition tournament at RMC.
Their games will be against Laval University on Saturday at 2pm, Universitie du Montreal on Saturday at 8:30pm, and, Sherbrooke University on Sunday at 12pm.
Player to watch on Laval: Frédéric Desbiens, who had 176 kills in the span of last season averaging 3.26 kills/game.
Player to watch on Montreal: Marc Langlois, who led the team in total digs in the 09/10 season with 122.
Player to watch on Sherbrooke: Fifth year player Maxime Rock Claessens-Rivest who led the team in total kills last year with 200.
Soccer
Women’s Soccer
The women’s soccer team will play their final games of the season as they host Dalhousie at King George the Vth on Saturday at 1pm and Sunday at 11am. The games will be the final of the varsity careers of graduating seniors Samantha Hansford, Leighanne Tobin and Ashley Dawe. The seniors will be recognized in a post-game ceremony on Sunday.
Saturday’s game will be the annual Go Pink Series game, a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
Though the women’s season has not gone the way they had hoped for they find themselves in a unique position this weekend to change the layout of the women’s playoff schedule. Despite not winning last weekend against UPEI, they did put up a fight; their losses being close games (0-1 Saturday and 0-2 Sunday). This weekend they invite the second place Dalhousie Tigers (9-0-2 for 29 points) to town, if they play the way they did against UPEI last week an upset is not out of the question.
The game will also very likely be the last game for Memorial’s Alex White-Dzuro who will be graduating in the spring.
Player to watch on DAL: Fifth year player Jeanette Hucks leads the Tigers with five goals, of which four of those scores have been game-winning-goals.
Men’s Soccer
The soccer team plays their final home action of the season this weekend as they host Dalhousie at King George the Vth, Saturday at 3:15pm and Sunday at 1:15pm. Prior to Sunday’s game senior team captain Andre Le will be recognized in a ceremony.
The men’s side currently holds a record of 5-4-1 (17 points), which puts them tied for fourth place in the AUS standings. Currently, there is a logjam in the standings with only five points separating third place and sixth place. The men’s team is in control of their own destiny after getting critical wins last week over the UPEI Panthers, getting game inspiring performances from third year Chris Pope and rookie Michael Brushett.
The DAL Tigers currently are one point ahead in the standings with 18 points, they will not make it easy for the Sea~Hawks to clinch a playoff berth.
The Sea~Hawks know what’s on the line this weekend so expect them to be very focused and determined. So far this season, the teams has really come together to compete in a very even AUS conference. Young players such as Alec Benson, Brushett, Stevie DeLong, Scott Woodfine, and Luke Olmstead look to be key clogs for the playoffs as well as next year’s season. On the backline Chris Pope is playing the best soccer of his varsity career.
Player to watch on DAL: Fifth year player Ross Hagen leads his teams with seven goals on the season. More impressive is that he has registered 23 shots, 17 of which have been on target for a great shooting percentage of .739%.
Cross Country
The AUS Cross Country championship will be held at St. FX in Antigonish this weekend. The women’s race which is 5km will be held at 12pm, the men’s 10km race will start promptly after at 12:45pm.
This season the Sea~Hawks runners did well in both the Dalhousie Invitational and the UNB Invitational with the women and men’s side both finishing in third place of all participating universities. Erica Pritchett and Sean Hulburt led the way in this year’s timed events posting best times of 18:51 and 26:22 respectively.
Pritchett and Hulburt will be counted on to continue posting great times at the championship if Memorial wants to add to their medal count.
Hulburt, though not a favorite, has the potential to win the overall men’s race if he runs at top speed. He is a strong candidate to be an all-star.
Pritchett has had a great senior season and gives Memorial another potential conference all-star.
Racing for the women with Pritchett will be Victoria Ralph, Jenny Hulburt, Jessica Coffey, Laura Lawes, Katie Little, and rookie Melanie Amminson.
On the men’s side Hulburt will be joined by Tyler Cole, Shawn Miller, Matt Wakeham, Tom Martin, Adam Fitzgerald and rookie Jordan Francheville.
Swimming
The Sea~Hawk swimmers will be travelling to Waterloo to complete their dual meet series against the University of Waterloo Warriors. This meet,will be their last competitive swim before going to an official AUS invitational at Dalhousie on November 20th-21st. The swim team stayed very competitive in their first meet against the Warriors winning three out of the four relays.
Men’s Swimming
The men’s side will be hungry for victory against the Warriors after their narrow loss in overall points in early October by a margin of Sea~Hawks 51 to Warriors 53. Even if they had one second place finish in one heat that would have been enough to put the Memorial men’s side up.
The relay team of Adam Harvey, Richard Hibbs, David Forbes and Brandon McKay were inspirational coming only a second off of the NL Provincial Record with a time of 1:51.69 in the 4 x 50m IM. The four swimmers teamed up once again later in the meet to win the 4x50m Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:39.87.
Coach Hutton was particularly impressed with the debut of rookies McKay and Matt Roberts. Roberts posted a second place finish in the 200m Backstroke with a best time of 2:22.31. Finally, AUS All-star David Forbes started off his 3rd year leading the Sea-Hawks with a great performance. Forbes never relinquished the lead in both the 50m Butterfly with a time of 26.58 and 50m Freestyle clocking 24.75. In the 200m Freestyle Forbes finished second with a time of 2:01.31.
Meanwhile, the men’s Warriors have now competed in three meets this season. Just last weekend they travelled to Guelph to compete with the University of Guelph and Brock University. Winning over Guelph 140-40, but succumbing to Brock 140-40.
Swimmer to watch on Waterloo: Andrew Lee, who in last weekend meet came first in the 400m free, and second in the 200m free.
Women’s Swimming
Coach Hutton and Leah Tomblin both believe they can send a women’s relay team to the CIS swimming nationals in Calgary this year. Left out of last meet’s roster due to injury was Nadine Rockwood, a young up-and-comer who posted times just over CIS standards in the 100m, 200m, and 400m freestyle events. Rockwood is now fit and ready to compete hard with the women’s relay team.
Kelsie Rogers scored the most points for the women’s Sea~Hawks. Rogers raced to first place finishings in both the 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle posting times of 31.38 and 28.60 accordingly. Rogers also placed second in the 200m Backstroke with a time of 2:32.25.
Third year Leah Tomblin also kick started the year with had an unbelievable meet with convincing wins in the 200m Backstroke (2:26.77). Tomblin also won the 50m Backstroke with a time of 32.16. Lastly, in the 200m Individual Medley, Tomblin raced to third place with a time of 2:38.00.
During the Warriors last meet last weekend, also against the University of Guelph and Brock University, the women’s side achieved losses to both Guelph and Brock by scores of 115-71 and 140-40 respectively.
Swimmer to watch on Waterloo: Taryn Dewar who’s stroke of choice is the breast stroke. In last week’s meet she placed first in the 200m Breast and second in the 100m Breast.
Wrestling
The MUN wrestling team will travel to Montreal this weekend to participate in the Concordia Open on Sunday. The meet gets started at 8:30 am.