WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The fourth seeded Saint Mary's Huskies battled back from a 2-0 set deficit to win three games in a row for a 3-2 match victory against the fifth seeded Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus.
Fifth year outside hitter Erica Dowling (Sackville, N.S.) led the Huskies with 12 kills in the comeback Huskies win.
"All year we have been in a lot of close games; been down two sets and fought back hard. We just played every point. We have a lot of injuries right now and a lot of first year players playing. I am really proud of our team and how we fought back", said Dowling after the match.
A hard fought close first set saw both teams trade leads until at 17-17, Moncton's Pascale Doiron (Caraquet, N.B.) and Emilie Landry (Fredericton, N.B.) posted consecutive kills to give Moncton a 19-18 edge.
Three Huskie attack errors and a service ace by Doiron gave the Aigles Blues a 23-18 advantage and eventual 25-18.
The Aigles Bleus repeated a narrow win against the Huskies in the second set to take a 2-0 match lead.
The Huskies gained momentum after a 7-7 tie in the third set. Extending a lead to 18-14 in the third game, Saint Mary's captured a 25-23 win and continued in their winning ways, picking up a 25-18 fourth set win to tie the match at two.
Tied at two early in the final game, the Huskies pushed out to a 6-4 lead on kills from Subway Player of the Game Erin Smith and Kristina Alder (Brampton, Ont.). Attack errors by the Aigles Blues game the Huskies an 11-7 lead and eventual 15-8 win on the back of Maddie Clarke's (Ottawa, Ont.) kill and service ace and an Erica Dowling kill combined with a Moncton bad set to take the match 3-2.
Senior Huskie Erin Smith posted 11 kills and four service aces. A great defensive effort came from four Huskies who posted double digit digs including Maddie Clarke - 21, Erica Dowling - 22, Tessa Michaels (Mill Bay, B.C.) - 16 and Kristina Alder (Brampton, Ont.) – 10.
Moncton's Emilie Landry, named the Aigles Bleus' Subway Player of the Match, had a match high 13 kills for an impressive hitting efficiency of 0.333 while teammates Pascale Doiron and Rachelle Lemoine (Winnipeg, Man.) each posted ten kills. Moncton's strong defensive effort came from Doiron and Christelle Bertin (Beresford, N.B.) who each recorded 17 digs each while teammate Catherine Guitard added 15.
The Saint Mary's Huskies will meet the defending AUS Champion and No. 1 seeded Dalhousie Tigers at 4:30 pm Saturday afternoon in the first two semi-final games scheduled at the Subway AUS Women's Volleyball Championship.