WOLFVILLE, N.S. - The Axewomen volleyball team extended their winning streak to four with a 3-0 sweep of the visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks. The win improves Acadia to 5-7, with four of their losses coming at the hands of AUS competition prior to the AUS-RSEQ Interlock before the Holiday Break.

Pulling out to a 16-7 lead in the first game, the Axewomen maintained a healthy cushion to close the set out at 25-17. Rookie Lauryn Renzella (Stouffville, Ont.) led the set with four kills and three service aces.

With only a point between the competing teams up to 16-15,  Acadia broke away from the Sea-Hawks on kills from Renzella and first year hitter Michaela Sabean  (Bridgewater, N.S.) along with a service ace by Renzella. With a 22-16 lead, Acadia closed the game with kills by Sarah Ross (Toronto, Ont.), Fiona McGuinty (Ottawa, Ont.0 and Marrisa Chin (Markham, Ont.) to grab a 2-0 match advantage on a 25-18 set win.

Down by as much as five in the third set, the Axewomen inched their way back from a deficit to tie the game at 24. A bad Memorial set followed by an Acadia service error pushed the game into a 25-25 tie. A Sea-Hawk service error followed by Sabean's kill gave the Axewomen a thrilling come-from-behind 27-25 set win and 3-0 match victory.

"Our team stayed the course in set three despite a rocky start due to our unforced errors, but also because Memorial came on strong. We slowly chipped away until the team believed in the possibility", commented Acadia head coach Michelle Wood on her team's performance as the Sea-Hawks battled back from deficit. 

Wood noted that despite the win, a lesson is to be learned from the match. "The lesson for our team is that their behaviours, emotions and the way they approach each point have to remain aggressive and confident regardless of what the score is (up or down)."

First year outside hitter Lauryn Renzella led the match with 11 kills with a hitting percentage of 0.310 along with adding four service aces, while teammate Sarah Ross posted 10 kills and nine digs. Senior Hillary Monette (New Minas, N.S.), who was named the Acadia Subway Player of the Match defended well with 24 digs.

Sea-Hawk Taryn Toscani (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) grabbed the Memorial Subway Player of the Match honours with 11 digs and two service aces. Keirsten Fey (Selkirk, Man.) had Memorial's high of six kills along with 11 digs.

Memorial drops to 4-5 and trail Acadia in third place. Both teams will meet again on Sunday at 1:00 pm live on austv.ca