Huskies Win Sixth Straight; Finish fifth in Canada West

Photo Credit: Josh Schaefer Photography
Photo Credit: Josh Schaefer Photography

SASKATOON – The University of Saskatchewan Huskies will hit the post-season on a six-match winning streak after a 3-1 (25-17, 20-25, 25-13, 25-21) season finale win over the University of Regina Cougars Saturday night at the PAC.

Saskatchewan finishes the regular season at 15-9, tied for fourth in the conference standings with the Winnipeg Wesmen. Due to the tiebreaking procedure of sets won to sets lost, the Huskies will finish behind Winnipeg in fifth. Saskatchewan will travel to Winnipeg to take on the Wesmen in a Canada West quarter-final series next weekend. Regina finishes the season at 2-22.

The Huskies saw four fifth-year players play their final home games of their career Saturday night, as the Huskies will be on the road the rest of the way.

Jordan Nowakowski led the team in his final match at the PAC with 17 kills. Robert Graham added another five kills and a match-high seven blocks. Matthew Erickson recorded nine digs and an assist and Alexander Harvalias came in as a serving specialist in the match.

Matthew Lueck and Joshua Nickel each tallied 14 kills for Regina in the match. Jacques Borgeaud had a team-high 10 digs.

The Huskies got out to a quick 5-1 start to the match and continued to push ahead, up 9-2. Regina tried to claw back, but couldn't get any closer than five points in the set as the Huskies coasted to a 25-17 win.

The second set was a back-and-forth affair as neither team was able to separate at the technical timeout. Regina came out of the break looking to even the match up. The Cougars got ahead with an 8-3 spurt and held on for the 25-20 win.

Saskatchewan responded in the third building up an early five point cushion. Up 16-11 at the technical timeout, the Huskies would explode for a 9-2 push to the 25-13 win.

The teams would open the fourth taking turns to score one point at a time. With things tied at 11 the Huskies would make their run, only to have Regina cut the lead down to two again. Up 22-21 the Huskies got back-to-back kills from Nowakowski and an attack error to win 25-21.

Saskatchewan now travels to Winnipeg next weekend for the first round of the 2016 Canada West post-season.