CALGARY – It was a valiant effort from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's volleyball team, but in the end they came up just short, falling to the Calgary Dinos in a thrilling five set match (25-20, 21-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-13).
The Dinos took control in the first set winning 25-20. Things shifted in the second set, with the Huskies leading the way to take the set 25-21. The Huskies took advantage of this momentum to clean up the third set 25-16. The Huskies were led in the second and third sets by
Dylan Mortensen who offered up five kills in the second set, and four kills in the third.
After dropping the second and third sets, the Dinos gained momentum in the first half of the fourth set. After trailing for most of the set, the Huskies rallied back to tie it at 18-18 with
Daulton Sinoski and
Dylan Mortensen contributing to the Huskies surge. After trading a few points, Tomas Sorra executed the final kill of the set to keep the Dinos alive as they headed into a fifth set.
In the fifth, the Dinos took a six-point lead at 11-6 but the Huskies were able to crawl back within one at 12-11. Calgary was able to hold the visitors off, however, and a Liam Laidlaw kill sealed the 15-13 win for the home side.
Mac McNicol shone in his first conference match for the Dinos, leading Calgary with 16 kills on the night.
On the Huskies side, it was third year outside-hitter
Dylan Mortensen who led the way with 20 kills, followed by fifth year
Daulton Sinoski with 16 kills.
The two teams will be in action again in the Jack Simpson Gymnasium Saturday at 5:30 p.m. MT live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.