REGINA - The Saskatchewan Huskies picked up a five-set road victory over the Regina Cougars on Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
While the match needed the full five sets to decide, it was a bit of a strange one given that none of the first four sets were particularly close.
 
The fifth set was the most tightly contested of the lot, with Saskatchewan's Caet McCorkell scoring the final two points of the set on a kill and an ace to pull out a 15-11 win.
 
The match started out just like Friday's with the hometown Cougars taking the first set. This time, though, it was by a convincing 25-14 score only to have Saskatchewan follow that up with 25-17 and 25-16 wins in the second and the third. But the Cougars came back with a 25-16 win in the fourth as they hit an impressive .366 as a team while forcing a deciding set.
 
Saskatchewan led almost the entire fifth set, with the exception of a brief tie early in the frame. The Huskies responded to that 3-3 knot with three consecutive points and never led by fewer than two points after that. The Cougars cut the lead down to two on five different occasions after that, but each time Saskatchewan was able to come up with the side out.
 
Emily Koshinsky had a team-leading 13 kills for Saskatchewan, while McCorkell finished with 12. Shae Beaulieu and Mandi Fraser both had impressive nights defensively with 28 digs and 11 blocks, respectively, to help the Huskies improve to 12-6 on the season.
 
The loss overshadowed an incredible game for Regina setter Elizabeth Tooth, who flirted with a rare triple-double before finishing with 45 assists, 10 digs, and 8 kills. Britt Davis had 14 kills and 11 digs, while Jessica Lerminiaux had 12 kills and a team-leading 16 digs.
 
Saturday marked the second straight night the Cougars outhit Saskatchewan, but lost. Regina hit .184 as a team, while the Huskies finished with a .133 hitting percentage. Regina also had a 60-41 edge in kills, but Saskatchewan had an 18-9 advantage in blocks and had 12 aces to Regina's 6.
 
Both teams will travel west next weekend. Regina is on the road at UBC, while Saskatchewan can officially lock up a playoff berth with a win in one of its two matches at Mount Royal.