Sports

<p>It&#8217;s been almost a year since the St. Thomas University women&#8217;s rugby team fell short in the ACAA finals for a fifth consecutive season. All five losses came to the University of New Brunswick. It was the last game for the rookie head coach Mary-Kim Schriver, who stepped down from the team due to transportation [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When tragedy strikes the world, escaping to the court or the field can heal the wounds of life. They can&#8217;t do that now. The onset of COVID-19 has caused everything to shut down. For sports fans, there&#8217;s no longer a way to escape reality. The NBA suspended its season on March 11. Since then, the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The 2019-20 winter season was one to remember for the Tommies. On top of an ACAA men&#8217;s volleyball championship and hosting the 2020 CCAA men&#8217;s volleyball nationals, STU had many individual feats from their student-athletes, including two ACAA MVPs and multiple CCAA all-star selections. Vanessa Soffee of the women&#8217;s basketball team added to her collection [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Players piled up by the boards at the Aitken Centre&#8217;s centre ice. The puck was nowhere to be seen but it didn&#8217;t stop Emily Oleksuk and the St. Thomas University women&#8217;s hockey team from hacking at the pile, desperately attempting to keep their season alive. The University of New Brunswick led the defending AUS champions [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The 2020 CCAA men&#8217;s volleyball nationals at the Grant Harvey Centre didn&#8217;t go quite as planned for volleyball fans across the country. The tournament nearly ended before it began, as sport leagues and tournaments across the globe were suspended or cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, including the CCAA men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s national basketball tournaments. The [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A Field of Dreams quote sums up the impact baseball has had on the last century: “America has rolled on like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased by a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.” The 100-year span of baseball’s popularity sealed its place as America’s pastime. But today, mainstream sports [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas University men’s volleyball team is back on top of the ACAA after defeating the Holland College Hurricanes in three straight sets at the Athletic Centre in Sackville, New Brunswick. The Tommies took down the Université Sainte-Anne Dragons in their semifinal game, winning 3-1 to clinch their trip to nationals, while the women’s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When you think of &#8220;healthy,&#8221; what do you see? Most of us will see someone physically fit, with toned muscles, smooth skin and who is relatively thin; most likely someone you’ve seen at some point in your life, either in person or on screen. Someone aspirational, perhaps. Now picture &#8220;unhealthy.&#8221; What changes? Chances are, you’re picturing [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas University Tommies&#8217; track and field team wrapped up their season on Feb. 21 and 22 in Saint John at the AUS Championships. Both the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s team didn&#8217;t get the result they had hoped for, as the men&#8217;s team finished seventh place, while the women&#8217;s team finished ninth. Despite the loss, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>For Jesse Canney, swimming was supposed to be just for fun. He never anticipated he would be the first Special Olympian ever to win the New Brunswick Male Athlete of the Year in December of 2019 and the Special Olympics Canada Athlete of the Year. The 23-year-old from Fredericton started private swimming lessons when he [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas University men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s basketball teams faced off against the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics on Feb. 15 at the Lady Beaverbrook Gym. While the women were victorious by a landslide, the men fell short in a nail-biter. Women&#8217;s game The Tommies started strong in the first quarter of the game with [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Like most sports, hockey is filled to the brim with tension and intensity. When tensions boil over, intensity can turn to fists. But after the game, you still have to shake hands with the player you fought. Now that&#8217;s no longer the case. In the beginning of February, Hockey New Brunswick, the provincial governing body [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Fencing may not be the first sport that pops into your head when you think about University of New Brunswick sports. But for UNB grad Melodie Piercy, fencing is her passion. &#8220;I was looking to pick up a sport and wanted to try something new. I saw a poster for fencing, so I decided to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The defending AUS champions didn&#8217;t make it easy for their cross-campus rivals, the University of New Brunswick Reds, in game three of the best-of-3 quarterfinal series. The winner of this game would move on to the semifinals against the the Saint Mary&#8217;s University Huskies. The Reds led 1-0 with five minutes remaining in the fast-paced game. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>You’ll usually find St. Thomas University students Melanie Laplante and Grace Baker with their noses in books between classes or late at night in the library. “You have to balance your priorities, and I think that soccer and academics have shown me what I need to do. I think soccer will give me an upper [&hellip;]</p>

<p>With five minutes left in the third period, the Tommies women&#8217;s hockey team led by just one goal against the Dalhousie University Tigers on Feb. 8 at the Grant Harvey Centre. Third-year forward Olivia Reid had the puck behind the offensive goal and passed it in front of the net. All of a sudden, the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>There was no shortage of excitement on Feb. 8 at the Lady Beaverbrook Gym. The St. Thomas University men&#8217;s volleyball team faced their fierce rivals the Holland College Hurricanes. It was a chance at a rematch after the past two ACAA finals. The two teams split the opening two sets, while STU took the third [&hellip;]</p>

<p>With the indelible achievement of winning the AUS trophy last season, the St. Thomas University Tommies’ women’s hockey team look to repeat this feat under the guidance of veteran head coach Peter Murphy. Murphy has been pleased with the overall progress and talent he has seen within the team, despite the heavy influx of rookies [&hellip;]</p>

<p>After some contract hassles and a couple of plane flights, St. Thomas University alumna Taylor Cook is slowly achieving her pro hockey dreams. This month, she moved to Oslo, Norway, where she plays as a goaltender for Vålerenga hockey, a dominant force in Norwegian hockey since the 1960s. &#8220;[It&#8217;s been a] pretty easy transition for [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The visiting Crandall University Chargers women&#8217;s volleyball didn&#8217;t stand much of a chance against the high-energy Tommies on Feb. 1 at the Lady Beaverbrook Gym. Third-year left side Jennica Jean ended the first set with a high rising spike over the left side of the net. The Chargers were unable to handle the spike with [&hellip;]</p>