Blanchard about to get a break
Published Saturday November 7th, 2009
Jill Blanchard isn't looking past today's Atlantic University Sport Women's Volleyball Conference match against the Acadia Axewomen - 4 p.m. at the UNB main gym - but you can't blame her for looking forward to what's ahead for the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.
Coming soon: 36 volleyball-free days. Coach's orders.
"We made a decision last week that, after our match on Nov. 21 against Moncton, we're going to shut it down totally for 36 days, until we fly to Toronto for our tournament on Dec. 27. Don't come near the gym," said V-Reds coach John Richard. "They're going to work out off the court, but as far as on-court stuff, we're not going to go on the court."
As much as the 21-year-old Blanchard loves volleyball - beach in the summer, indoor in the winter - that's music to her ears.
"It's been pretty crazy, but I wouldn't change any of it," said the six-foot-one left side hitter.
She's been on a whirlwind since last December between tryouts and then training with the Canadian national beach volleyball women's team, the indoor season at UNB and the nationals, attending a month-long training camp for beach nationals, and competing for New Brunswick at the Canada Games in Prince Edward Island and then the beach nationals.
She trained for both indoor and beach volleyball competition - two workouts a day - for three weeks, then represented New Brunswick at the Francophonie Games in Beirut, Lebanon.
"It was so much fun," she said. "It was the greatest summer ever, to play volleyball all summer."
But she and her V-Reds teammates could use the break.
"We had seven of our 11 girls at the Canada Games between beach and indoor," Richard said. "Between the end of the Canada Games and the start of our season, we had nine days off. We knew it was going to be this way, and we've done some things to try to manage it. But we're just trying to get to Nov. 21 when we play Moncton."
Blanchard's knees, back and shoulders are all sore. But she'll make it onto the court today.
Teammate Tanya Paulin won't. She missed the final preseason tourney, the UNB Invitational tournament, and the season-opening interlocking tourney against Quebec schools with - well, any combination of the above.
Blanchard and Paulin, who plays the left side, are considered keys to the V-Reds' hopes to winning the Atlantic conference championship this season and making a third straight appearance at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship. But the dynamic duo have been on the court together this season only once.
V-Reds should be OK today. They swept Acadia 3-0 in preliminary play at the UNB Invitational here a couple of weeks ago and beat them again 3-1 in the final. Blanchard says the rookies on the roster, including Rebecca Glancy of Toronto - she was the UNB Invitational MVP - and Emma Hunt of Whitby, Ont., have exceeded expectations so far.
"They're doing amazingly well," she said. "They're going above and beyond what we expected. We knew they'd have to contribute right away, because we're a smaller team this year, and we were hoping they were going to fit in right away. But they've been amazing."
And of course, it's most important that the V-Reds be revved and ready in February, when the Atlantic championship tourney takes place in Halifax, and March, when the CIS tournament takes place at the University of Alberta.
That's a long way off, mind you. For Blanchard and friends, Nov. 21 seems like a long way off.
"Oh, I can't wait," she sighed at the mention of the upcoming break. "It's definitely going to be nice, just to be able to buckle down and study for exams and not worry about anything else."
Blanchard says she needs the break mentally as much as physically.
"Volleyball is a very mental sport," she said. "It's definitely taxing when you're playing all the time."
But she and her teammates are focused on the Axewomen today and what remains of the first-half schedule.
"We've just got to know that break is coming, but we have to give it our all right now," she said.
The fourth-year star still has to decide whether she'll return for her final year of eligibility. She'll have one more semester of classes to complete her degree after this year if all goes well. At some point, she'll likely have to choose between beach and indoor, "but not right now," she said.
AUS men's volleyball
The UNB Varsity Reds take a run at dethroning the perennial champion Dalhousie Tigers when they host the Memorial Sea-Hawks of Newfoundland in a pair of matches Sunday at the UNB main gym.
The teams were supposed to play the first match today, but due to flight delays out of St. John's, the matches will now go Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The Tigers, league champions in each of the past 23 seasons and for 29 of the last 30, swept Memorial in straight sets last week to kick off the schedule in the three-team circuit.
AUS soccer
The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds men's soccer team will live to play another day.
Quarterfinal action in the Atlantic University Sport Men's Soccer Conference championship tournament at Dalhousie University in Halifax was postponed Friday due to the heavy snow that fell in Halifax.
Quarterfinals, featuring the third place finishing V-Reds against the sixth place Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus and the fourth place University of Prince Edward Island Panthers against the fifth place St. Francis Xavier X-Men, unfold at noon and 3 p.m. today.
The regular season pennant winning Cape Breton Capers and second place finishing Dalhousie Tigers await the winners, with the Capers taking on the lowest-surviving seed and the Tigers taking on the other survivor Sunday at noon and 3 p.m.
Semifinal survivors will meet Monday for the AUS championship, with the winner advancing to nationals Nov. 12-15 at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C.
In women's AUS quarter-finals Friday, St. FX blanked UdeM 1-0 and Cape Breton downed Memorial 2-0. In today's semis, Dal will take on St. FX and UPEI will face Cape Breton.
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