UNB go 2-1 in final Interlock; preparing for AUS championship
Tim Lingley / The Brunswickan
The Varsity Reds men’s volleyball took two of three games during weekend Interlock play at the Currie Center last weekend.
January 25, 2012 6:00 AM ADT
The Varsity Reds may have gone 2-1 over the weekend, but still haven’t figured out the secret to beating the powerhouse that is Laval Rouge et Or.
The weekend began for the V-Reds with a 3-0 win against Sherbrooke (25-21, 25-20, 25-15). There was trouble at the beginning of the match when the Varsity Reds seemed unable to get their acts together.
“We dodged a bullet the first two sets against this team,” coach Dan McMorran said. “We started very slow out of the gates; we made unforced errors against a lot of teams. Sherbrooke has the potential to be real big and we actually were able to stop the bleeding midway through each set.”
Third-year Julio Fernandez hit his groove in the match.
“I started pretty slow but I know that with this team you start going the whole time otherwise they’ll get on there,” Fernandez said.
Despite a slow start, Fernandez delivered 17 kills for the team.
While Fernandez’s attacks are a crowd-favourite, coach McMorran was impressed with the other aspects of Fernandez’s play.
“I’m more happy for his serving and defensive today than I am for his attack,” coach McMorran said.
And McMorran and Fernandez have a lot to be happy about, as Fernandez is ranked among the top five left-side hitters in the country, coming in at number two.
The following match was against Montreal the next day. It was a tight game but the V-Reds pulled ahead for a 3-1 win (25-20, 15-25, 25-22, 25-19). In the previous Interlocks of the AUS and RSEQ divisions, UNB defeated Montreal 3-0 both times.
UNB’s last match of the Interlock was against heavy-hitters Laval Rouge et Or. The Varsity Reds lost the match 0-3 (12-25, 18-25, 19-25).
“I’m expecting a close game against Laval,” coach McMorran said. “This is the kind of thing I talked about a few days ago. Great team [Laval] over there and to play with a team like that you got to keep that intensity up.”
“We were in the third set when we actually started to play a little volleyball and start siding up with them. A couple of unforced errors seep in there and it’s just not maintaining that level of intensity throughout.”
Similar to the game against Sherbrooke, the V-Reds struggled to get their footing in the first two sets. It was only midway through the first sets that UNB was pulling together enough to score points.
Unfortunately, against a team like Laval, the midway point it is far too late to completely recover the ground lost. The V-Reds just weren’t quite fast out of the gate and Laval took that advantage and ran with it.
Laval’s team holds players Micael Girard and Karl De Grandpre and is the fourth-ranked team nationally in men’s volleyball.
“Karl [De Grandpre] is a world-class player. Karl played international for Canada here and he’d been with the national team for last number of years,” coach McMorron said. “I mean, Karl is going to get his kills.”
“Karl actually hit some very smart balls. When other players would be trying to put it straight down, Karl hits the ball deep in the court. So it’s a good example for our younger hitters as to how you have to use the ball at the CIS level.”
“You can’t be going with your high school shot. Karl’s a fantastic player and I think he’s a good learning tool for our young players.”
The past weekend’s Interlock between the AUS and RSEQ division was the third of three. UNB will have four more matches - two against Memorial and two against Dalhousie - before the conference championships.
The next two matches will be home games against Memorial at the Currie Center, 4 p.m. on Jan. 28 and 12 p.m. on Jan. 29.
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