Reds Beat Sea-Hawks

(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB Reds ended a four-match losing skid with a 3-1 win over the Memorial Sea-Hawks on Friday, in the final match on day one of the Atlantic University Sport league tournament, at UNB's Richard J. Currie Center.

UNB won with scores of 25-14, 20-25, 25-18 and 25-16.

Bailey Lemieux (Fredericton, NB) led the Reds with 15 kills and eight digs, earning Subway Player of the Game honours.

"It feels really good, we worked really hard for it," said Lemieux, of the win. "We've been working really hard at practice and we played our game, worried about ourselves, and it worked."

The Reds took control early, taking a 16-8 lead to the technical time out of the first set.

They limited the Sea-Hawks' opportunities the rest of the way, winning 25-14.

Memorial showed more life in the second set, trading points with the Reds to a 5-5 tie.

UNB moved ahead 9-7, but Memorial would not let them build a significant lead, and tied the set again, 10-10.

The Sea-Hawks then surged ahead 14-12 and led 16-13 at the technical time-out.

Memorial continued to build, and won the second set 25-20.

The Reds went up 10-7 in the third, but saw the Sea-Hawks respond, tying the match 11-11.

At the technical time-out, the Reds were up 16-15.

UNB added to their lead, thanks to some strong play at the net from Lemieux and Victoria Eadle (Gallagher Ridge, NB), taking the third set 25-18.

The fourth set saw the Reds again build a lead, going up 11-7, and forcing the Sea-Hawks to call a time-out.

UNB pushed the lead to 16-8 at the technical time-out.

Down 20-10, the visitors found some traction, scoring three consecutive points to trim UNB's lead to 20-13 and prompting a Reds time-out.

The Reds went up 21-14, scoring on a long, 20-plus touch rally, and that seemed to deflate the Sea-Hawks.

UNB won the fourth set 25-16, taking the match 3-1.

Eadle had 12 kills and 10 digs for the Reds, while Paige Lehto (North Vancouver, BC) had 41 assists and six digs.

"It was a group effort," said Lemieux. "I had a good game, we all had a good game."

Claire Whiffen (St. John's, NL) led the Sea-Hawks with 11 kills, while Katie Wagar (Halifax, NS) recorded 15 digs.

The Reds, now 3-and-4, face the unbeaten Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday. That match is scheduled for a 7:00pm start.

"Winning in this league isn't easy, especially for a young team like ours," said Sea-Hawks head coach John Slauenwhite. "We'll look at what we did well in that second set and see what we can't bring into the other matches here this weekend."

The Sea-Hawks, now 0-and-7, take on Acadia on Saturday.

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics