SASKATOON, Sask. – The Saskatchewan Huskies blew past the visiting Trinity Western Spartans in straight sets (25-21, 25-23, 25-22) Saturday afternoon (March 1) enroute to taking game three of their Canada West quarter-final matchup and winning the series 2-1.
The result marks the first time Saskatchewan has prevailed over Trinity Western in the playoffs since the 2003-04 season, and during that postseason run, the Dogs out-played the Spartans twice, eventually claiming both the Canada West crown and the U SPORTS national title.
Saskatchewan’s has now punched their ticket to the Canada West Final Four, thereby marking the Huskies’ second appearance in the championship tournament over the past three seasons.
Saskatchewan will travel to Manitoba next weekend to take on the top-seeded host Winnipeg Wesmen in a single-elimination semi-final showdown. The Huskies and Wesmen squared-off earlier in the season with the two teams splitting their two game matchup.
In this quarter-final finale, Jacob Baird led the way for the Dogs by collecting team-highs in both points and kills as the Daisy Hill, Australia native converted 27 total attacks into a 13 kill, 16 point performance while also hitting at an efficiency of 37%. Additionally, Baird chimed in from the service line by nabbing two of the Dogs’ six service aces.
“I think our key to success [today] was just focusing on our energy”, said Baird. “The bench, the crowd, the coaches, the people on court all had the same kind of passion and energy, which was really great and made our execution of our technique very easy.”
Alongside Baird, it was a trio of Saskatchewan front court attackers that helped propel the Dogs to victory as Isaiah Mamer, Emmett Graham and Lucas Musschoot all enjoyed hitting percentage performances above 33%.
Of the bunch, Mamer contributed the second highest point and kill totals with 13 and 12, respectively. Musschoot’s presence on defence resulted in a team-high three total blocks; meanwhile, Graham was the most efficient hitter of the match, posting an impressive game-high .500 hit percentage on 16 total attacks.
For Trinity Western, it was again Kaden Schmidt who led the charge for the Spartans, outpacing all hitters in three separate categories by amassing 21.5 points, 17 kills and three service aces. Conversely, Piers de Greeff had a rare down performance as the Spartan sophomore could only muster nine kills on a .121 hitting percentage. The latter of which was de Greeff’s lowest mark since the same Huskies held him to .100 on February 14th.
After the Huskies took the opening set, de Greef and Baird traded kills for their respective clubs in the early goings of the second frame, but it was two rapid kills from Musschoot that put the Huskies ahead 11-7, forcing Trinity Western into a timeout. Coming out of the huddle, the mini-break seemed to recharge the Spartans as the visitors went on to win seven of the next eight points, leading to a 14-12 advantage. With both sides jockeying to take the set in the back half, the two teams found themselves tied 22-22, but a lengthy rally that went the way of the Dogs and back-to-back points from Baird propelled Saskatchewan to take the set 25-23.
With home-side fighting to move on and the visitors fighting to extend the game and their season, the Huskies and Spartans traded blows, resulting in a 10-10 tie midway through the third set. Later, with the score now tied 14-14, Saskatchewan would win the next four points, forcing Trinity into another timeout. This time the reset did not result the same way it had in the second as Mamer issued three straight kills for the Dogs, helping extend their lead to 22-18. With the Canada West Final Four in full view, Emmett Graham unloaded back-to-back kills on the final two points for the Dogs to seal the set and the victory.
After the Spartans’ season-ending match, head coach Adam Schriemer remarked on his team’s accomplishments this season.
“I was proud of their resiliency and ability to try out lots of different lineups [and] lots of different styles of volleyball. At the end of the day, our faith and our belief in each other was just so noticeable, even in some tough sections when we were down a lot today there was never any quit in our guys.”
The Canada West Men’s Volleyball Final Four kicks off next weekend (Mar 7-9) in Winnipeg.