The Huskies volleyball teams did not win in their home-opening games Oct. 28 and 29, but they are still optimistic about the upcoming season.

Last season, the men’s and women’s teams finished the year with a combined five wins. But with emerging young players and new coaching, the Dogs look to improve upon last year’s dismal finish.

Jason Grieve, the new coach for the women’s team, was formerly the coach at Waterloo and took that team from the bottom of the table and turned them into a winning squad from 2002 to 2006.

“The girls looked hungry and they are building confidence,” said Grieve of this weekend’s games.

The Huskies dropped their first match to the Trinity Western Spartans on Friday, losing 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-9). They came out with more fire on Saturday and made for much closer sets, but still finished 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 17-25, 26-24).

Trinity Western is known as a team with strong blocking, but the Huskies “started opening their defence up with sharp passing and effective offence,” said Grieve.

Despite trailing 2-0 in the second game, the third and fourth sets showed the game turn more in Saskatchewan’s favour. They won the third set by 8 points and narrowly lost the fourth.

Candace Hueser led the Dogs attack with 20 kills in two games.

Kayla Tycholiz, a first-year player from Prince Albert, is looking to prove herself at the university level.

“The game was a lot of fun. I was trying to shake the nerves,” said Tycholiz. “It’s a lot faster than high school. I need to be more patient with my game.”

She had three solo blocks and four kills in the second game.

The Huskies men’s volleyball team were also looking for better results to start the season, but were hard-pressed to counter the offence of last season’s champions and the No. 1 ranked Spartans.

In the first game, Saskatchewan got up 2-0 in sets but buckled under Trinity Western’s 83 per cent hitting efficiency in the final sets, losing 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-12, 25-17, 17-15)

The second game on Oct. 29 saw the Spartans come out to win the first two sets. While Saskatchewan won the third set, the Spartans were able to prevent a Dogs’ comeback by taking the fourth set to win 3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 25-18)

Matthew Busse put up the strongest showing for the Dogs with 31 kills and 4 blocks on the weekend.

He was helped by Geoffrey Zerr, who had 18 kills, and Braden McLean, who had 5 blocks.

[box type=”info”]Both the Huskies men’s and women’s teams have home-and-home matches against the University of Regina this weekend. They’ll be in Regina on Nov. 3 but back to Saskatoon on Nov. 5.[/box]

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Photo gallery: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf