ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Memorial Sea-Hawks will be hoping tournament play can help spark a turnaround as they take to the court in AUS women’s volleyball play today in Fredericton, N.B.
The Sea-Hawks are 0-6 on the young season after being swept by the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Halifax in their season-opening games and by the Moncton Aigles Bleues in St. John’s last weekend.
All six conference schools are participating in the weekend tourney being hosted by the University of New Brunswick, although MUN will face just three of them — the UNB Reds tonight, the Acadia Axewomen on Saturday and Moncton on Sunday.
Even though they are winless, the Sea-Hawks have players with some of the top individual statistics in the AUS.
Middle blocker Alyssa Warford is second in the conference with 63 kills, while outside hitter Kaitlyn Kuchinka is fourth with 54; Kuchinka is third in the AUS with 11 service aces, while Warford is tied for fourth with 10; libero Katie Wagar is the clear leader in the conference with 117 digs, while Warford is tied for fourth with 67; middle blocker Catherine Smith has nine blocks, which second-most; and Warford (75.5) and Kuchinka (68.5) are second and third in total points, calculated using kills, blocks and service aces.
Sea-Hawks swimmers at Halifax invitational
The volleyballers won’t be the only Sea-Hawks athletes involved in a mainland AUS competition beginning today.
Memorial’s men's and women's swimming teams are in Halifax for the 2019 Kemp Fry Invitational hosted by Dalhousie University.
The Sea-Hawks have nine male and 14 female swimmers, with more than have the team — 13 in all — collegiate rookies.
Among those first-year competitors are internationals Takeru Saito from Japan and Carlos Escalante from California. Two more are Polina Konstantinova, who is seeded fourth in the women’s 100-metre breaststroke and Natalie Smart, a medal hopeful in the 200m individual medley.
Another Memorial female competitor of note is second-year Keelin Tucker, a medal contender in the 400m IM.
On the male side, one to watch is second-year competitor Thomas Chafe, seeded third in the 400m freestyle. Chafe is also ranked sixth in the 200m freestyle for this competition, but third in the AUS; that’s because McGill is also competing in the Invitational.
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