EDMONTON, AB — Saturday afternoon saw the Saskatchewan Huskies take on the MacEwan Griffins in game two of the weekend series on the road. After dropping Friday night’s game in three straight sets, the Huskies looked to change their fortunes and capitalized on weak serving from the Griffins, winning the game in straight sets (25-23, 25-23, 25-14).
Out of the 12 service errors the Griffins committed in the loss, 11 of them were in the first two sets.
“We had 11 (service errors) going into that third set, which was five or six more than Saskatchewan had,” Griffins Head Coach Chris Wandler. “The margins of errors in Canada West are very small, and that’s the difference. We hit a few more of those points on our side, it’s a different story.”
MacEwan fell behind early in the opening set and had to fight and claw their way back, after Saskatchewan went up 12-6. A series of back and forth points would advance the set, until six straight MacEwan points brought the Griffins within one at 17-16. A Saskatchewan timeout shutdown the MacEwan run and kills from Keely Anderson and Devyn Ethier pushed Saskatchewan up 24-20. Julia Sprentz would give the Huskies the set winning kill.
“Maybe we didn’t expect them to come out as hard as they did, and we weren’t able to find a way to rebound from that,” said MacEwan’s Andi Krawec after the game. “Our ability to problem solve out on the court just wasn’t there today.”
MacEwan got off to a better start in the second set and both teams took turns going on runs, but once the Huskies took a 20-19 lead, they were able to make that extra push to close out the set, despite the late charge from the Griffins.
Saskatchewan came out strong in the third set, going up 15-9 before a MacEwan timeout. The Huskies would continue to dominate the set, getting 10 of the next 15 points and winning the set 25-14.
The Huskies improve to 3-1 after the weekend.
KEY PERFORMANCES Keely Anderson paced the Huskies attack with 10 kills, six digs, and four service aces in the win. Devyn Ethier added six kills and ten digs for the Dogs, while setter Sophia Magus had 21 assists.
Mariah Bereziuk led MacEwan with 10 kills, and Arden Butler chipped in with nine kills. Bronwyn Ettinger recorded 20 digs in the loss for MacEwan, who are now 3-1 on the Canada West season.
NEXT UP
The Saskatchewan Huskies are back at home taking on the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on November 3 & 4. Friday night will see the team take the court at the Physical Activity Complex at 7:30 PM, with Saturday’s game starting at 4:30 PM. Tickets are available at HuskieTickets.com and the games can be streamed live on CanadaWest.TV.