Mounties advance to ACAA Women's Volleyball semi with 5 set win

The Mount Allison Mounties thrilled the home crowd with a wild 5 set victory to open the 2020 ACAA Volleyball Championship on Friday. The championship is being played in the Mounties home gym for the firs time since 2014.  In the end, an energetic home crowd helped propel the Mounties past a feisty DAL AC Rams team that has played their best volleyball over the last month of the season.

With the quarter final win, the Mounties advance to Saturday's ACAA Semi-final against the #2 ranked STU Tommies at 2PM.

The Mounties found themselves in an early deficit as DAL AC built a 17-13 lead in the first set.  The Mounties fought back to tie the set at 22-22 but the Rams would eventually take the set 25-23.

The Mounties grabbed momentum early in the 2^nd set, charging out to a 13-4 lead. The Rams answered back with a push of their own, drawing to within 3 at 20-17. But All-Canadian Rachel MacDougall closed things out for the Mounties as she served her way to a 25-17 win.

The two sides stayed closed in the 3^rd set as the score sat at 12-12 near the midway point. But soon after the Rams grabbed the advantage and eventually won 25-20 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

With their backs against the wall, the Mounties found a way to answer back in the 4^th set. With a slim 19-18 advantage the Mounties were able to win the longest point of the afternoon on a long rally with big saves on both sides of the net. From there the Mounties would only drop 2 more points en route to a 25-21 4^th set win.

The 5^th set followed the trend of tight volleyball and the teams found themselves deadlocked at 6-6 early on. The Mounties eventually found a way to close out the match, winning 15-9 to advance to Saturday's Semi-final.

Player of the match for DAL ACA was freshman Marit Zwinselman, who had 22 kills on the afternoon. Libero Hannah Crouse was named Player of the match for the Mounties for her 22 digs during the match.