AUS Champions

Hey Everyone,

so this past weekend was our best 2-3 series with he Dal Tigers for the AUS Championships, and fortunately for us, we made it a clean sweep! We defeated the tigers on home court Friday evening with a score of 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23), player of the match was league MVP, Julio Fernandez who tallied up 13 kills, 8 digs and 2 blocks in the 4 set match. The 2nd match took place Sunday evening at the Richard J Currie Center....the crowd was electric to say the least! Once again however, we were unable to capitalize in the first set (whether it was nerves etc), and lost a close one 25-23, but after that, it was all smooth sailing. We took the next 3 sets with scores of 25-17, 25-19, 25-7...and the AUS Banner!! Player of the match was AUS rookie of the year, Eivind Andersen who racked up 10 kills, 9 digs and 3 blocks for the varsity reds.

Winning on home court was definitely a surreal experience, especially for myself and other graduating teammate Matt Sweet. It was an awesome way to finish off our career at UNB! On behalf of the team, we just want to say a huge thanks to all the fans that came out for our match and battled through the snowstorm to do so, we all really appreciate it...without a doubt the 7th man!

Our next step is now looking ahead at CIS nationals in Quebec City in two weeks! University of Laval hosts this years championship and so far, 3 teams have booked their tickets, ourselves, University of Laval and University of Montreal. The OUA and CanWest playoffs are this weekend and the final 5 deciding teams will be known by sunday evening. We are unsure what seed we will get going into nationals, but it doesn't matter,we are practicing and training harder and better than ever and we will be ready for whoever we face in the first round.

As we get closer to the nationals, I will fill you all in on our seeding, as well as give you the webcast link to the matches. Thanks again for all the love and support at home over the season, UNB hands down has the best fans out there! Cheers,

Costa

Heading into playoffs!

Hey Everyone,

this is going to be short and sweet. The weekend has finally arrived, the weekend that all the practices, off court training, roadtrips through the night, video sessions have lead up too...playoffs! We had to Halifax tomorrow morning to face off against Dal in the first of our best 2/3 series. The match is webcasted too, its on at 7pm and you can watch the game through this link: http://athletics.dal.ca/dalhousie_tigers/events/men-s-sports/volleyball.html then click on the TV link by the date/match time. The second match of the series takes place at UNB this Sunday at 7pm, we want to pack the currie center so grab your friends and come show some love! Our team made this video yesterday before our practice...hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH-aSWnHG38

Cheers,
Costa

Trip to the Rock

Hey everyone,

hope you all had an awesome weekend! This past weekend our team travelled to NL to take on memorial university for our 2 final matches of the regular season. This trip can always be full of surprises. We left Fredericton and travelled to halifax on Thurday, with the plane to catch our 4pm flight. However, due to bad weather in Halifax, our flight was delayed until 630pm, and then it was delayed until 830pm, and than 945pm, and then finally it was cancelled. So we stayed in a hotel for the night and the following day we finally lifted off the ground and headed to NL. We played at 8pm and landed in St. John's around 330, so still lots of time to rest before our match.

Our first match was a convincing 3-0 win, with scores of 25-16, 25-20, 25-14. We executed very well and were able to get into a rythem with our block n defence. Player of the match for the first game was the venezuelan assassin himself, Julio Fernandez who racked up 16 kills, 1 kill and 1 block in the 3 set match.

The following day was not the same story. MUN came out with a better mindset, and arguable we had a poorer one. MUN played without a doubt, their best ball of the season, getting touches on almost all balls that were crossing over the net and we caused serveral unforced errors which lead to the result that happened. They caught us off guard and forced us to 5 sets before we were able to seal the deal. The set scores were 25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12. POG recgonition for this match goes out to #11, Logan Keoughan, who tallied 12 kills, 1 dig and 5 blocks for the match. I'd like to do a quick shout out to Drew Stephens and Brad Pitcher, the 2 graduating 5th years on MUN...solid career fellas and I only wish the best for both of you in the future!

The weekend of course, finished off the same way it begin, with delayed flights, and an extended travel time home. We landed into halifax around 1130pm last night, and drove straight home, arriving into freddy around 430am. The travel escapades that varsity athletes have to deal with is not always as sweet as the normal students may think haha!

We now have 2 weeks of hard, intense, focused training before play offs begin against the dalhousie tigers. The best 2/3 series will start the weekend of Feb 15-17, and conclude the weekend of Feb 23rd, if a 3rd match is required. As I find out the specific dates and times of the matches, I'll keep you all posted.

This week I'm going to introduce you to a fan favourite local guy, Matt Losier. Matt (Marty) is a 6'2 first year setter who is studying business at UNB. He has had an awesome rookie season thus far and I'm sure the rest of his season, along with his career at UNB will be very memorable. Here are some fun facts about the kid;

Q: Why did you choose UNB?
A: I chose UNB because I liked the atmosphere and the boys on the team. Dan was also a big factor in my decision as well. I also wanted to play at home in front of my family

Q: What has been your favourite experience as a varsity red thus far?
A: My favourite experience so far was the first time we beat DAL. Every team I have been on, those NS boys where always our rivals so it was nice beating them.

Q: Who do you think will win the Super Bowl today, and why?
A: I want the Ravens to win! I really enjoy watching Ray Lewis and I would like to see him win his last game in the NFL.

Have an awesome week everyone,
Cheers,

Costa