SASKATOON – Looking to be down and out of the game trailing by two sets, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies stormed from behind to claim a 3-2 (23-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-7) victory over the visiting Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday night.
"An up-and-down game for sure but for our team to grind that out shows a lot of character," said Huskies head coach
Mark Dodds." I'm happy with the outcome but we've got some work to do to sharpen things up."
The swing in the game came from the Huskies defence, after allowing Winnipeg to finish at a clip of .268 through the opening three sets, the Huskies block went to work and cut that down to marks of .186 and -.074 the rest of the way.
Emily Koshinsky had a game-high 18 kills for Saskatchewan while also recording an ace in the game. That ace was monumental as Koshinsky moved into 20th in the Canada West record books with 115 in her career.
Mandi Fraser and
Olivia Mattern who finished with 15 kills apiece rounded out the top-scorers for Saskatchewan.
Ashleigh Laube was dominant for the visiting Wesmen, racking up 17 kills on 59 swings and adding a pair of aces. Kalena Schulz and Emma Parker finished with 16 and 14 kills respectively while setter Rylie Dickson had 53 assists on the night.
Winnipeg was able to force the Huskies into errors and take advantage when they had their opportunities in the first two sets.
Holding Saskatchewan to hitting just .098 and .081 in in the opening two sets, the Wesmen received eight kills from Laube en route to set wins of 25-23 and 25-15.
From that point forward it was all Huskies.
Koshinsky had 10 kills in the final three sets and Fraser 12 along with five blocks as Saskatchewan rebounded to claim set victories of 25-22, 25-21 and 15-7.
The win keeps the Huskies hopes of hosting a playoff series alive as they move to 10-5 in conference play and are now in sole possession of fifth place. For Winnipeg, who are now 7-10 on the season the loss drops them to the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference.
These two teams will be back in action tomorrow afternoon with a scheduled start time of 3 p.m. inside the PAC.
