Huskies fall 3-1 to Axewomen

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The Axewomen improve to 11-3 with a 3-1 win over the Saint Mary's Huskies at Stu Aberdeen Court on a Sunday afternoon.

The Axewomen lead the Huskies 3-0 in the four match regular season series. The next time both teams will meet is in the regular season finale at Saint Mary's on February 15^th.

The win gives the Axewomen a comfortable second place lead over the third place UNB Reds and clinches a playoff berth for Acadia.

Acadia jumped out to a 14-9 first set lead after kills by Hannah Helm and Lauryn Renzella and a Huskie attack error. The Axewomen pushed out to a 20-12 lead but stalled after Saint Mary's capitalized on four service aces by Emilla Conlon to close the Acadia lead to 21-17.

The Huskies' effort fell short as the Axewomen squeezed out a 25-20 first set win.

A back-and-forth second game remained close until the eventual 25-23 Huskies win.  An exchange of kills in the closing of the set ended after a kill by Acadia's Lucy Glen-Carter that tied the game at 23. Two Axewomen attack errors concluded the 25-23 Saint Mary's win.

The Axewomen regrouped for a dominant 22-14 lead in the third set, but Olivia Bell's kill followed by Conlon's service ace started the Huskies' comeback that would end at 23-17. Renzella's kill would give the Axewomen a 25-20 third set win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

Another close set would be defined by two timely kills by the eventual AUS Subway Player of the Game Hannah Helm. Helm's first kill gave the Axewomen 17-15 lead and her second of the set would give her team a 20-17 lead that would hold for a 25-23 final set and match win.

Lauryn Renzella and Lucy Glen-Carter led the Axewomen with 10 kills apiece, while Helm added seven and Taylor Collombin posted eight. Helm also had five service aces. Regan Herrington "quarterbacked" the Axewomen with 32 assists.

Huskie Jaime Rourke had a match-high six service aces and added nine kills. Teammate Bethany Smith recorded a match-high 12 kills and 0.267 hitting percentage for Saint Mary's.

The Axewomen posted on 19 attack errors compared to the Huskies' 32 and 11 service errors.

The Axewomen head to Fredericton next weekend for two matches against the UNB Reds beginning on Saturday at 2:00 p.m., while the Huskies take on first place and undefeated cross-town rivals Dalhousie on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m.

Source, Acadia