Huskies finish regular-season with weekend sweep over Wesmen

SASKATOON — The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s volleyball team  put a bow on their regular-season with a 4-1 win (25-15, 25-22, 16-25, 25-16) over the Winnipeg Wesmen at the PAC.

The Huskies will enter the postseason on a six-game winning streak thanks to the weekend sweep over the Wesmen, which they put an exclamation mark on with the four-set victory to finish the 2021-22 campaign with a 14-2 record — good for third in the Canada West.

Saskatchewan was the more efficient team on the afternoon with aa .319 hitting-percentage, in comparison to Winnipeg’s .242

Mandi Fraser, Emily Koshinsky and Caet McCorkell all recorded double-digit kills on the afternoon, with Fraser leading the way with 12 to her name along with four blocks. Averie Allard chipped in 34 assists and a game-high three service aces.

“I would say we bounced back from yesterday. Yesterday wasn’t our best game, we still played pretty well, but definitely this was a bit of a bounce back game today. We stabilized things. We blocked a lot better today and ultimately, played a better game. It was a lot of fun to watch,” said Huskies head coach Mark Dodds.

Emma Parker had a game-high 24 kills on the afternoon for the Wesmen, while Ashleigh Laube tacked on 10 of her own to go along with a team-high 15 digs.

Koshinsky entered the afternoon’s contest in fifth-place in the Canada West all-time record book in career points and after a 13.5-point performance on the afternoon, the Jansen, Sask. product moved into third in conference history.

Koshinsky was one of four graduating Huskies honoured prior to the game, along with fellow fifth-years Shae Beaulieu and Emma Matheson and third-year middle Dani Forester.

“It’s just a special night to be able to honour them and all their hard work,” said Dodds.

“Every graduating player means so much. Each of them is just a little bit different, but these four in particular, all of them are just outstanding human beings. They’ve all been a pleasure to coach.”

The Huskies will be back in action next weekend, as they play host to the opening round of the Canada West playoff. Games will get underway at 6:00 and 8:00 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as Saskatchewan welcomes three other Canada West schools to the PAC, with the top two teams advancing to the next round of the postseason.

“Huge excitement right now. It’s obviously a big moment to be able to host playoffs in a little bit of a unique format this year and that brings a lot of excitement within our group of four, but just across Canada West. There’s lots of teams in the playoffs and there’s lots of volleyball action next weekend,” said Dodds.

“We’re looking forward to hosting and being in our own gym and hope, hope to play our best volleyball.”