Interlock Weekend Review

Hey everyone,
I hope you all had stellar weekends! This past weekend was a pretty busy one for our team. We hosted the 3rd and final AUS/RSEQ Interlock tournament of the season; which means all the AUS teams compete against all the Quebec conference teams and the matches count towards league play.

Our first match was Friday evening against the University of Sherbrooke. Although having a slow starts in the 1st and 2nd set, we were able to pull it together for a three set victory with scores of 25-21, 25-20 and 25-15. My brother from another mother, Julio Fernandez, received the player of the match and deservingly so! He recorded 17 kills, 8 digs and 4 blocks for the match.

In our 2nd match, we faced the University of Montreal. Despite being an overall smaller team then us, it never takes away from the heart and spirit they bring to the game. They’re one of those teams that you just cannot come out flat against, or you’ll pay. That being said, they were able to come out and capitalize on the first set taking it 20-25, after that, we were able to re-group as a team and push out the next 3 sets 25-15, 25-22, 25-19 to grab the win. Marc ‘the wonder boy’ White was picked as player of the match for his contributions of 10 kills, 12 digs and 1 block towards our W.

The final match of the weekend faced us up against the University of Laval, who currently are ranked #4 in Canada. In our past 2 meet ups this season; our scores were 3-0 and 3-1 against the Rouge et Or. Both entering the matches with a 2-0 record for the weekend, one of us were hoping to go home with the perfect record. We started off slow and although playing fairly strong, were not able to take advantage of any offensive opportunities because of Laval’s superb defense; they pulled out a first set win of 25-15. The following 2 sets showed a bit closer match ups but once again, we were unable to hang in down the stretch as Laval took the sets 25-19 and 25-19.We know that coming into our latter half of the season, with the hopes of making another appearance at the national championships in March; Laval is the type of team we would face in a first round match up. That being said, instead of looking at our loss as a negative, our team talked afterword’s about the learning curves we could take away from the match. We have things to work on and goals to still reach as a team…but if you didn’t have anything to work on, what would be the point of playing right? The player of the match was #1, Brett LaDrew…aka “b b b b”. He had a solid performance putting up 6 kills, 3 digs and 5 blocks.

This past weekend was also Alumni weekend which means a few special gentlemen on our team were honored; Matt Sweet (#4) and our captain received the Dirk Kiy Leadership award and Logan Keoughan (#11) received the Malcolm Early award. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our alumni for the continuous and ongoing support they give our program. You’re all major contributors to our programs success so on behalf of our entire team and coaching staff, THANK YOU!

This week I’d like to introduce you to the Venezuelan assassin himself, Julio Fernandez (#5)! Julio is a 3rd business student and arrived in Canada 2 and a half years ago. I had the pleasure of having the first on court session with him and my coach when he first arrived and will never forget it. He could barely speak a word of English, which is hard to believe because now he almost speaks perfect English. I cannot say enough great things about this guy; on the court he is an explosive and dynamic player who has proven to be one of the top outside hitters in the country and off the court, he’s a class act individual. Here’s a bit of info from the amigo himself:

Q: How and why did you choose to come to UNB?
A: I heard through friends that program and school were top quality and that had a major influence on my decision of coming to UNB.

Q: What has been your favorite experience since arriving in Canada?
A: Besides playing volleyball (winning AUS last year), I’d have to say being with my teammates, we’re very close off the court and whenever we all get together, we always have a blast!

Q: What are your plans after you finish your degree at UNB?
A: I would love to play professional volleyball overseas somewhere for a few years and see how that goes. I can see myself living in Canada long term though; I really enjoyed BC last spring when we were out there for CIS championships.

Hope you all have a good week, if you’re around Fredericton this weekend, don’t forget to stop by the Currie Center Saturday and Sunday as we talk on the Memorial Seahawks at 4pm and 12pm.
Cheers everybody
Costa