HÂþ»­

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) – The HÂþ»­ Tigers took down the Saint Mary's Huskies in four sets to defend their AUS championship for the second time in as many attempts. The Tigers dispatched the host UNB Varsity Reds in the Semi-Final the previous night in a competitive five set match en route to the AUS final.

"This was a hard fought win, you know," said AUS Head Coach of the Year Rick Scott of the Tigers. "Five sets in the semi, and this was a tough four set win over Saint Mary's. I'm just really proud of the girls. I don't know if a lot of people gave us a chance at the start of the year, but the girls really played hard, we had great leadership and we came out and got the job done."

HÂþ»­ dictated play early on, going on a ten to three run which lead to a 25-17 first set win. The Tigers would relinquish the second set to Saint Mary's 24-26 and it looked like they would be in for another grueling five set match until HÂþ»­ began taking advantage of poor service play from Saint Mary's. The Tigers would go on to win the last two sets by an identical score of 25-20. The Huskies finished with an ace to error ratio of 0 compared to +8 from the Tigers.

"That's where the rally starts on both sides," said Rick Scott on the importance of the service game. "I think we did a good job and obviously at the end to go on that five point run serving, with two or three aces was key for us. Otherwise we may have been playing a fifth set."

The AUS Subway Player of the Game for the Tigers was Julie Theisen (Middleton, N.S.) with six kills, two aces, 17 digs and three blocks. Other standout players for HÂþ»­ were Anna Dunn-Suen (AUS First Team All-Star from Halifax, N.S.) with 16 kills, 14 digs and two blocks, and Mieke Dumont (AUS All-Rookie from Kamloops, B.C.) who had eleven kills, five aces and 16 digs.

The No. 1 seeded Huskies had a good tournament but simply committed a few too many errors on championship day. AUS Subway player of the Game for Saint Mary's was Shelby Michaels (AUS First Team All-Star from Mill Bay, B.C.) with 17 kills, two aces and eleven digs.

HÂþ»­ has two weeks off before they head to the CIS national tournament at the University of Toronto on February 26.

"It's gonna be tough," said Rick Scott. "It's a privilege to be going to nationals. We're taking a couple days to relax, then we're gonna get fired up to represent the AUS."

Tournament MVP went to Tiger Dunn-Suen. She was also named a tournament All-Star along with teammate Abby Czenze, Veronique Carroll of Université de Moncton, Jacqueline Sebetovsky of UNB, Shelby Michaels of SMU and Rachel Windhorst (AUS Most Valuable Player of the Year) also of SMU.