X-Women Volleyball advance to AUS final

The StFX X-Women are heading to the AUS championship game. The X-Women defeated the UNB Varsity Reds 3-1 Saturday evening in the AUS semi-final game played at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

Led by Player of the Game and recently named AUS Player of the Year Catherine Thornton who had 17 kills in the match, the X-Women powered out the four set victory to advance to the AUS final against Saint Mary’s on Sunday. Seeded No. 1 in the conference championship, the X-Women won the first two sets with scores of 25-22 and 25-23. The Varsity Reds took the third set 25-23 then the X-Women came back to close out the match with a 25-18 fourth set victory.

In the opening game the Varsity Reds held an early lead at 8-3 but the X-Women began to close the gap, assisted by a pair of aces from Catherine Thornton. The Varsity Reds led 16-13 but the X-Women closed to a 17-17 tie and then took the lead and never looked back as hey closed out the first set with a 25-22 win.

The X-Women began the second set with an 8-4 lead and built that up to a 16-11 advantage. UNB fought back and closed to 17-17 but the X-Women held their ground down the close final stretch and held on for the 25-23 win.

The third set was close through the start with UNB holding a slight 8-7 advantage at the first technical timeout. The Varsity Reds pulled ahead 12-7 and then 16-13. The X-Women got back into the match and were tied 21-21, then were down by a point at 24-23 after an Alex Quinn stuff, but the Varsity Reds were able to hold out for the 25-23 win. The fourth set saw the X-Women leading throughout the game as they were able to win 25-18 and take the match in four games. 

Thornton led the StFX attack with 17 kills, along with 2 aces and 5 digs. Katherine Ryan had 14 digs, 2 aces, 2 blocks and 14 digs for the X-Women while Alex Quinn contributed 7 kills, 1 ace, 4 blocks and 7 digs. Leah McInnis had 14 digs on defense.

He Varsity Reds were led by Tanya Paulin with 14 kills, 1 ace and 7 blocks while Jillian Blanchard had 12 kills, 2 blocks an 13 digs. Barb Vriends tallied 9 kills and 4 blocks and libero Megan Dudeck contributed 21 digs.

With the win the X-Women advance to the AUS championship game slated for Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm at the Saint Mary’s Tower. Their opponent will be the host and No. 2 seeded Saint Mary’s Huskies, who knocked off Acadia 3-0 in the other semi-final. The X-Women are competing for their first ever AUS championship title.  

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