The men’s team reeled off their sixth straight win, but the women had a tough weekend versus MacEwan.

In another exciting weekend of University of Saskatchewan volleyball, the men’s team continued their hot streak but the women continued to struggle against the hosting MacEwan University Griffins.

The first match of the weekend for the women, set on Nov. 21, was the best of the weekend. In a back-and-forth contest it would end up being the Griffins who would outlast the Dogs as they took a thrilling 3–2 (10–25, 25–17, 25–17, 13–25, 15–10) victory to open play. After a dominating first set, it looked like the Huskies would run away against the lowly Griffins, but the home side would dig in and take sets two and three.

Another big fourth set gave the U of S momentum heading into the fifth and deciding set, but it wasn’t meant to be. MacEwan used four of their 10 blocks in the final set for the exciting win. As usual, Emmalyn Copping led the Huskies on offence with 11 kills. Kayla Tycholiz had eight blocks but the star of the match was Jennifer Heuser, who notched an incredible 27 digs.

The following night, the Griffins who were once again victorious as they beat the Dogs 3–1 (25–18, 19–25, 25–18, 25–16). After a second set loss evened the score at one, MacEwan turned it up a notch for their home fans and were dominant down the stretch to pick up the sweep of the Huskies. MacEwan hit at 0.181 while the Dogs sat at just 0.109.

The losses drop Saskatchewan to 3–9, which is second last in the Canada West conference. MacEwan, meanwhile, improves to 5–7 and sits just outside the playoffs. Nearing the halfway point of the season, the Dogs will really have to pick it up if they want to make the post-season.

On the men’s side it was the Huskies who swept the host Griffins, who are still searching for their first win of the 2014–15 season. The Friday evening saw the Huskies drop the first set, but rebound nicely to pick up the 3–1 (22–25, 26–24, 25–23, 25–20) win. The Huskies’ power duo of Paul Thomson and Jordan Nowakowski each had 18 kills and also combined for 19 digs and one serving ace. It was another terrific performance on Thomson’s part, who ranks third in CanWest in kills per set with 3.93.

On Nov. 22, the pair was at it again with Nowakowski recording 17 kills and Thomson having 11. With the duo setting the pace, the Huskies took a 3–1 victory (25–14, 17–25, 25–20, 25–21) to complete the sweep. It was a great day all-around as the team had a collective hitting percentage of 0.250, much better than the Griffins who hit 0.146.

With the pair of wins, the Dogs have won six in a row and improve to 7–5 on the season. Their recent surge has them up to seventh place in the standings, which just happens to be the final playoff spot. The Griffins drop to 0–12 and sit in last place.

Next weekend the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds will be in town to take on both the men and women’s teams. For the men, it’s a big matchup as the T-birds are 9–4 on the season and in fourth place, while for the women UBC is 8–6 and sitting in fifth position.

The games against UBC will take place on Nov. 28 and 29 with the first serve set at 6 p.m. for the women with the men following at 8 p.m. All games will take place at the PAC.

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Photo: Kyle Muzyka / The Griff