The Mount Royal Cougars (9-12) dominated their match against the Saskatchewan Huskies (6-15) on Friday evening on Kenyon Court, winning in straight sets (25-18, 25-17, 25-20).
The Cougars received strong efforts from all of their starters, with Kylie Willis and Julia Kryzan leading the way with nine kills each. Cassidy Kitchen and Alex Donaghy did their part making seven kills each in addition to Amy Gordon and Maddi Quinn, who both performed admirably.
The win vastly improves the Cougars playoff prospects, giving them sole possession of seventh place in the Canada West standings with three games remaining in the regular season.
Saying Saskatchewan got off to a bad start would be an understatement. Missing the mark on a few routine passes and sets, the Cougars jumped ahead 6-1, forcing an early Huskies timeout.
The Huskies came out of the timeout looking solid. Five separate players made kills as Saskatchewan knotted the game back up at 10.
However, Saskatchewan couldn't maintain their run. Behind strong play from Julia Kryzan, including five first set kills, the Cougars built another strong lead.
With the score 24-18 for the Cougars, Mackenzie Pek would make a service error, giving Mount Royal the win.
The second set began similarly. Taylor Pelland and Cassidy Kitchen both made impressive kills, painting the line, to help the Cougars get ahead 6-3 before a Huskies timeout.
The Cougars piled it on from there. With Kylie Willis catching up to Kryzan in kills, the Cougars would take a commanding 18-9 lead.
The Cougars did a good job in the second set preventing Huskies kill attempts, with Kitchen, Pelland and Kryzan all doing a good job getting above the net to block hits.
Up seven points, Kryzan would make yet another kill to give the Cougars a 25-17 second set victory.
The Cougars got out to their hottest start of the night in the third set, converting on Huskies errors and jumping ahead 16-6.
The Huskies attempted to make a late game run, winning four straight points to make the score 24-20 before a serving fault sealed the deal for the Cougars.
The two squads will have a rematch tomorrow afternoon at 4 P.M on Kenyon Court.