X-Women are riding high

StFX enters volleyball playoffs as top seed; SMU has other bye
Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald 

Just two years ago, the St. Francis Xavier women’s volleyball team managed to only scrape out three wins all season.

This weekend, the X-Women enter the Atlantic university playoff weekend as the No. 1 seed.

"As a coach you always hope that you end up in this type of position," St. F.X. head coach Michelle Aucoin said of the programs’ quick turnaround. "I have been able to get some strong student athletes that have really bought into hard work and into a system that I believe in. It makes my job easier having athletes who work very hard."

St. F.X., which won 11 games in its previous two seasons combined, finished tied with Saint Mary’s atop the conference standings with an 11-7 mark, including wins in its last seven matches. The X-Women earned top ranking based on their head-to-head meetings with the Huskies during the regular season.

Both St. F.X. and SMU received a bye into the semifinals at the conference championship, which begin this evening at The Tower in Halifax.

Aucoin, who took over the St. F.X. post in May 2006, credits the addition of two veteran transfers for her team’s inspired play this season.

Leah McInnis, a former AUS libero of the year who won a league title with Dalhousie in 2005, and middle blocker Alex Quinn, who won three conference banners with Saint Mary’s, joined the X-Women this season for their fifth year of eligibility.

McInnis, who last played for Dal in 2006, is enrolled in the education program at St. F.X. Quinn, who finished at SMU three years ago, is taking a human kinetics minor in hopes of getting into the education program. Both were named conference second-team all-stars on Wednesday.

"We’re very fortunate to have Leah and Alex join us for this year," said Aucoin, who was named AUS coach of the year on Thursday. "Aside from them, we are a young team. Both come from tremendous programs with histories of success. With their past experience, they have been able to transfer it onto my group. That type of leadership is hard to teach. It has taught our kids how to win."

It has rubbed off on the team’s two brightest stars.

Sophomore left side Catherine Thornton, who has overcome two reconstructive knee surgeries in her young career, was named conference MVP on Thursday after ranking fifth in the AUS in kills (2.93 per game) and scoring (3.34 points per game).

And Katherine Ryan, last season’s AUS rookie of the year, had an outstanding sophomore campaign, finishing fourth in kills (3.01) and tied for sixth in scoring (3.31).

"It’s no coincidence they are both very good volleyball players: they are two of the hardest working, most-disciplined athletes I have ever coached," Aucoin said.

"The fact Catherine has been able to be so impactful in 13 months after her second surgery just shows her work ethic and level of commitment."

St. F.X., which has never won a conference championship in women’s volleyball, will have its collective hands full against the Huskies’ own dynamic duo of Kerri Smit and Alison Beaver, who were each named to the AUS first all-star team.

Smit, a third-year outside hitter and last season’s conference MVP, led the AUS in both kills (3.91) and scoring (4.60), despite missing most of the first half with a shoulder injury. Beaver picked up the slack during Smit’s absence, ranking second in kills (3.31) and third in scoring (3.73).

"Ali has been an amazing athlete," said Darren Russell, the Huskies’ first-year head coach. "The leadership she has brought this year, especially with Kerri being out all of the first semester. Ali put the rest of our team on her shoulders and we kept on rolling."

With only four points separating the top four teams — St. F.X., Saint Mary’s, Acadia and UNB — in the final standings, having that quarter-final bye today was crucial for both the X and SMU.

"Certainly one of our goals at the start of the season was to capture a bye," Aucoin said. "We are pretty happy to have done that. But once the regular season is over, it’s a clean slate for every team. Really all the league rankings do is determine what time you play on Friday or Saturday. Teams one through six could win a championship."

Russell added: "This year, it was extremely important to get one of the byes. The top six teams, anyone can beat anybody at any given time. I don’t think anyone wanted to play in that first round and gamble on that."

Tonight’s quarter-finals feature No. 3 Acadia against sixth-seeded Dalhousie at 6 p.m. and fourth-ranked UNB facing No. 5 Cape Breton at 8 p.m.

In Saturday’s semifinals, St. F.X. will take on the lowest remaining seed at 4:30 p.m. while SMU plays the other quarter-final winner at 7 p.m.

The final goes Sunday at 2 p.m. The winner advances to the CIS championshipin Edmonton.

St. F.X.’s Thornton named volleyball MVP

Catherine Thornton, a sophomore left side with the St. Francis Xavier X-Women, was named the Atlantic women’s volleyball conference MVP on Thursday.

An academic all-Canadian who was born in Kobe, Japan, Thornton ranked fifth in the league in kills (2.93 per game) and fifth in scoring (3.34 points per game) during the regular season and helped lead St. F.X. to a first-place 11-7 record.

Thornton, the first St. F.X. player to be named AUS women’s volleyball MVP, recorded 10 or more kills in 14 of 18 matches this season.

Her coach, Michelle Aucoin, was selected as the conference’s coach of the year. The Dartmouth native, in her fourth season as St. F.X. bench boss, guided the X-Women to their first regular season title. St. F.X. won its final seven regular season matches — and 10 of their last 11 — after a 1-6 start to the season.

The league’s rookie of the year is Meg Rector of the Acadia Axewomen. Rector led the conference in hitting percentage (0.311), finished eighth in blocks (0.82 per game) and paced all AUS rookies in scoring with 2.70 points per game.

Cape Breton Capers’ Kristen Ryan of Port Hastings was selected as the AUS libero of the year. Ryan finished second in the conference in digs, averaging 4.90 per game.

Jillian Blanchard of the UNB Varsity Reds was named the AUS student-athlete and community service award winner and nominee for the CIS Thérèse Quigley Award, for the player who best represents the balance between athletics, academics and community service.