EDMONTON — Two upsets in two nights was too much to ask from a University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's volleyball team that fell 3-1 (25-14, 25-13, 23-25, 25-18) to the No. 5 ranked Alberta Pandas Saturday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.
Third-year outside hitter Kory White led the Pandas with 19 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Julia Zonneveld had 10 kills and 20 digs.
Freshman middle
Mandi Fraser led the Huskies with nine kills in the loss.
Emily Koshinsky chipped in with seven while
Alexandra Frank and
Regan Wiebe combined for 32 assists.
The Pandas improve to 14-6, while the Huskies fall to 8-12 and remain in the playoff hunt.
Alberta dominated the opening two sets and had the Huskies looking for answers.
In the second set, they jumped out to an 11-1 lead, and continued to pour it on to lead 16-3. Jess Stroud recorded three service aces in the set and Vanessa Jarman had four of her seven kills in the second set.
"They played way better," said Huskies head coach
Mark Dodds. "They served a lot more aggressively and they were so good defensively against us. The game kind of flipped on us from last night."
The Huskies showed character to earn the third-set win. After getting beaten soundly in the opening two sets, they didn't back down in the third set and pulled out a gritty 25-23 set win.
"We got things straightened out in the third set, and started to play to our level, but you have to have a much better effort if you want to beat a team like that," said Dodds.
"It was nice to see us not pack it in. We got lots of positives out of it, but we have to put more work in to make sure we finish the last two weeks strong."
The Pandas got off to a strong start in the final set, and though the Huskies came back to take an 11-10 lead, a Stroud ace and some big plays from Stroud, Zonneveld, and Vanessa Jarman fueled a 15-7 run to put Saskatchewan away.
Next up, Saskatchewan enters their bye week before the Huskies travel to Kamloops, B.C. to take on the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack, February 8 – 9.
