(Halifax, N.S.)—The Memorial University Sea-Hawks defeated the Saint Mary's Huskies in four sets on Friday evening (21-25, 25-14, 27-25, 25-11) and will advance to Saturday night's Subway AUS Women's Volleyball Championship game versus the U Sports No. 7th ranked Dalhousie Tigers.
The top-seeded Tigers swept the fourth-seeded Moncton Aigles Bleus 3-0 in the other semi-final.
AUS MVP Jill Snow (Bishops Fall, NL) led Memorial and all hitters with 15 kills in the win while teammates Kierstin Fey (Selkirk, Man.) finished with 12 kills and Sarah Dawe (Mount Pearl, NL) added 10.
Erin Smith (Moncton, N.B.) paced the Huskies with 11 kills and 13.5 points in the loss. Kristina Alder (Brampton, Ont.) added nine kills and Maddie Clarke (Ottawa, Ont.) had seven for SMU.
Saint Mary's won the first set 25-21 by taking a quick 4-2 early lead. The Huskies added to their lead by doubling up the Sea-Hawks 14-7 midway thru the set. Memorial made the set close with a 10-5 run to get within two points, 19-17. SMU used a 6-4 run to end the set 25-21.
The second-set saw Memorial hold a quick 4-0 cushion and led 15-10 halfway thru the second-set. A 6-0 Memorial run saw the Sea-Hawks increase their lead to 21-10 before both teams traded points late in the set as Memorial took the set 25-14.
Both teams were tied 10-10 early in the third-set when SMU used an 8-4 spurt to take a 18-14 lead. Memorial used a 5-0 run themselves to regain the lead 19-18. A 4-0 SMU run had the Huskies out in front once again, 22-19. Memorial used an 8-3 run to end the set 27-25.
Memorial built a 10-2 early in the fourth-set and used a 15-9 run down the stretch to close out the set 25-11 and win the match 3-1.
Subway Players of the game – SMU #15 Erin Smith, MUN, #18 Maiya Westwood
Saturday's schedule has the 3rd place game at 4:30 p.m. with Saint Mary's hosting Moncton and at 7 p.m. Dalhousie takes on Memorial for the 2017 Subway AUS Women's Volleyball Championship.