Cougars swept by Saskatchewan, but lock up postseason berth

The University of Regina’s women’s volleyball team suffered a three-set loss to Saskatchewan on Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon, but the news wasn’t all bad for the Cougars as the out-of-town scoreboard helped them lock up a playoff berth.

The Cougars are assured of finishing with a better record than both the fifth-place team in the West Division (Thompson Rivers) and the fourth-place team in the Central Division (MacEwan), which means that they would be assigned the final wildcard berth even if they end up in fifth place in the five-team East Division.

But the Cougars will have loftier goals than that, as they could still finish as high as second place in the division with four matches remaining on the conference schedule.

Saturday’s match saw Saskatchewan set the tone by scoring the opening nine points of the day. The Huskies cruised to a 25-13 win in the first set, took the second set by a 25-17 margin, and won the third 25-22.

Emily Koshinsky led Saskatchewan (12-2) with 10 kills while Averie Allard had 22 assists and Jessica Andjelic collected a match-leading 13 digs. Mandi Fraser led the Huskies at the net with six blocks.

The Cougars, who fall to 4-8 with the setback, were led by 10 kills by both Bailey Balaberda and Jessica Lerminiaux. Katie House and Devyn Grimsrud both had five blocks, while Cassadi Klapak had 22 assists and seven digs and libero Sierra Parris-Kruger ended up with a team-leading 12 digs.

The Cougars close out Canada West play with a home weekend against Manitoba and a road weekend at Brandon. They’ll host the Bisons next Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport with 6:00 PM start times for both matches.