SASKATOON, SK – The USask Huskies completed a weekend sweep over the Trinity Western Spartans. It was Déjà vu at the Physical Activity Complex this Saturday night – the Huskies came from behind to win the match in five sets for the second night in a row. Saskatchewan (25-14, 23-25, 25-17, 16-14).
The first set was evenly matched until late in the action – Saskatchewan racked up a series of errors that Trinity capitalized on. The opening frame finished 25-21 in favour of the Spartans.
The Huskies start strong in the second set, taking the lead quickly and keeping it until TWU tied it up 11-11. Saskatchewan would take a time out in hopes of shifting the momentum. The set closed after a series of Huskie attacks – Quinn Buchanan came up clutch with an assisted block followed by the set winning kill. Saskatchewan took the second set 25-22.
The third set was all Spartans – they took the 4-1 lead early and didn’t let up. Ultimately, two consecutive kills by Trinity’s Mathias Elser gave the Spartans their largest lead and the set 25-17.
Saskatchewan came out in do or die fashion to snag the lead after a big kill by Dylan Mortensen followed by a service ace by Quinn Buchanan. The Dogs determination would overwhelm the Spartans, as they would win the set 25-17 to force a fifth set for the second night in a row.
The fifth set came out as exactly what the Huskies would have drawn up. Levi Olson opened the scoring with a kill from Jake Rapin followed by a classic Olson service ace. Dylan Mortensen made his name known to the Spartans – Sask was up by 5 points when he came to play. Mortensen’s name filled the stat sheet and ended it all with a massive block to close the set and the match (15-7).
Mathias Elser, lead the Spartans with 18 kills, 2 aces, 2 assists and 4 digs. While Dylan Mortensen and Levi Olson lifted the Huskies. Mortensen came out with 16 kills, 8 blocks, and an ace. Olson racked up 9 kills, 2 aces, 5 digs and an assist.
After the Huskies completed the weekend sweep of the Spartans at home for the first time since 2015, Huskie Head Coach, Sean McKay, had this to say. “I think it was a huge weekend for our belief and, and our process. We have a goal to make it to the national tournament and we’re starting to really take it to the teams that are going be in the way of that. There is a lot of season left that we still have to stay clean on, but definitely an encouraging weekend”.
“We had really good attacks out of our middles and blocking really carried us kind of both nights. Also, the guys from the service line heating it up when we needed them to”. McKay carried on to note the keys to the weekend’s success.
The Huskies are back in action next Friday as they host the Manitoba Bisons at the PAC. Tickets are available at huskietickets.com.
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