SASKATOON, Sask. – Saturday afternoon (Feb. 1) on the Ron & Jane Graham Centre Court, the U SPORTS No. 7-ranked University of Saskatchewan (USask) Huskies secured a weekend sweep of the UBC-Okanagan Heat with a 3-1 victory. Set scores were 25-27, 25-13, 25-16, 29-27.
The win continues to solidly the Dogs position as the No. 4-seed in the Canada West standings, as the team fights to earn the right to host a Canada West quarterfinal series in the postseason. With a two game lead over the Trinity Western Spartans the Huskies are on track to do just that and, in that scenario, would host the Spartans on their home court.
Meanwhile for the Heat, the loss drops the team to 9-9 on the season as they maintain the 6th seed in the conference standings.
The first set of the match both teams come out strong with neither willing to surrender significant scoring streaks. The largest lead of the first was just three points, a 12-9 lead for the Huskies early. As the two teams continued to trade blows the visiting Heat were able to take advantage of consecutive Huskie attack errors and take a 25-24 advantage. UBCO’s Sam Jablonski and Thys Weststrate would then give the visiting team the early lead with back-to-back kills to take the set.
Despite the set loss, Emmett Graham got off to a strong start in the match, recording 7.5 points in the first set and a .333 hitting percentage.
Looking to answer on their home court, the Dogs would respond with a dominant second set that began with a 10-3 scoring run following an early 2-2 tie. From there Saskatchewan would allow just eight points while scoring 13 of their own to even things up at one set apiece.
In another convincing set performance from the home team in the third, the Huskies and Heat played to a 10-10 stalemate before the defensive play of Saskatchewan took control. For the remainder of the set the Dogs did not allow consecutive points from UBCO once, earning a 15-6 run to take the match lead.
Second-year middle blocker Jacob Baird was excellent in the frame, totaling 5.5 points thanks to five well-timed kills.
The fourth would see the two teams wrestle for control in another tightly-contested frame that came down to the wire. After the Heat took a late 24-22 lead the Dogs were able to rattle off three straight before the two teams began trading scores as the set began to go the distance. After a Saskatchewan attack error tied things up, Emmett Graham came up with the kill to send the Heat to match-point before a UBCO error secured the Huskie win.
The winning effort was led by outside hitter Emmett Graham how would finish the match with a game-high 20.5 points. In Grahams sixth 20-point game of the season, he recorded 18 kills, a service ace, and three total blocks. In what was another fantastic team-effort each one of the Huskie starters reach or surpassed the 10-point mark with Isaiah Mamer finishing with 14.0, Jacob Baird 13.0, Lucas Musschoot12.5, and senior Jefferson Morrow 10.0. Coming off the becnh Joshua Thorson, the Dogs other senior, totaled a pair of kills and 2.0 total points.
The visiting Heat were led by Lucas Woelders who recorded 14.5 points in the loss. Seba Manuel followed closely behind with 12.0 as the only other member of UBCO in double digits.
Saturday afternoon’s match also served as the Huskies “Senior Night” night game with the Dogs playing in their final regular season home match of the 2024-25 season. The team recognized leftside hitter/setter Jefferson Morrow and outsider hitter Joshua Thorson following the win, with the pair graduating following this year.
Morrow, who joined the Huskies prior to the 2023-24 season after transferring from MacEwan University, has appeared in 34 matches and 136 sets recording 273 kills and 308.5 points. The product of Wynnum, Australia, is in the midst of his best season yet having totaled 155.0 points this year. Thorson meanwhile was another transfer player who has been a member of the Dogs for the past two seasons. A former Western Mustang but local Saskatoon product, Thorson has seen the court in 31 matches and 76 sets amassing 89 kills and 119.5 points.
The Huskies will now head to the bye week ahead of their season finale against the Trinity Western Spartans on the road in two weeks time (Feb. 14 & 15).