WOLFVILLE – In front of a capacity crowd, the Acadia Axewomen picked up a 3-1 victory over the Saint Mary's Huskies on Friday night to open their AUS women's volleyball championship final best-of-three series.

The Axewomen won 25-14 and 25-18 to open the match before the Huskies bounced back with a statement third set of their own, winning 25-14.

In a back-and-forth fourth set, with it being tied until 10-10, Acadia pulled away to take the deciding set 25-21.

Acadia's player of the game, Eve Collombin (Victoria, BC) finished the match with nine points (six kills and three aces) offensively, while her largest impact was a team-leading 16 digs.

Leading the Axewomen offence was Jenna Lake (Conception Bay South, NL) with 13 kills, three aces and two block assists. Not far off was middle Erica Fisher (Middle Stewiacke, NS) with eight kills, three aces and two block assists for 12 points.

Saint Mary's was led by Emilia Mikanovich (Minsk, BEL) with 14 kills, an ace and solo block for 16 points in the match. Olivia Bell (Lahave, NS) also had an impressive match for the Huskies, finishing with 10 kills, two solo blocks and a block assist.

The offence was run through Huskies' player of the game Taylor Lougheed (Calgary, AB), who finished with 32 assists. For Acadia, setter Charlotte Dean had 34 assists.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Sunday, March 3 in Halifax at Saint Mary's Homburg Centre. First serve is slated for 7:30 p.m.