CALGARY – The University of Saskatchewan Huskies were full marks for a vastly improved effort but were unable to solve the second-ranked Calgary Dinos, falling 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-20) Saturday night at Calgary's Jack Simpson Gym.

BOX SCORE

The Huskies fall to 5-5 on the season with the loss, while Calgary remains atop the Canada West standings with an 8-2 record.

Saskatchewan was a different team from the one that was swept at the hands of the Dinos in Friday night's weekend opener. Matt Busse put up 14 kills on the night, while Alwyn Piche rebounded from a sub-par effort Friday night to post a match-high 17 kills. However, despite taking the first set 25-20 and controlling the second set early, the Huskies had no answer for the Calgary offence led by Oleg Podporin, who hit 62 per cent on his 13 attempts by pounding 10 kills from the middle. Curtis James also shone for the second straight night, pounding 14 kills to lead the way for Calgary.

“First of all, full credit to Saskatchewan for bouncing back from last night,” said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant. “I was impressed with the way we fought back tonight after losing the first set and after losing Chris (Hoag), and now we can go into this little break on a high after two big wins this weekend.”

Hoag, a CIS all-rookie teamer in 2008-09, left the match in the first set after landing awkwardly on his left ankle.

Saskatchewan took control of the opening set thanks to a trio of Calgary errors which contributed to a four-point Huskies run to give them a 14-9 lead – a lead they would hold through the remainder of the set to take a 25-20 win.

The second opened with the teams exchanging points up to 12-12 before Podporin led Calgary on a four-point run, opening with a kill then teaming with James on consecutive blocks of Busse attacks to make it 16-12 Dinos. The Huskies responded with a five-point swing of their own to go up 18-17, but Calgary was able to come back to take a 25-22 win in the set.

The third set went back and forth to a 22-22 tie before Don MacNeill scored back-to-back kills to set up set point for Calgary, and a Busse error put the Dinos up two sets to one. Calgary also pulled away after the 16-point break in the fourth set, scoring 10 of the final 14 points of the match to complete the weekend sweep.

Geoffrey Zerr, Ben Bourgeois, and Jeffrey Grant each added six kills for the Huskies in a losing cause, while setter Cole Hintz used the second-contact attack effectively to rack up five kills on seven tries.

For Calgary, MacNeill and David Egan scored eight kills apiece while Podporin figured in seven of the team's 10 blocks on the night.

Saskatchewan returns home to host the Winnipeg Wesmen next weekend, while the Dinos will take a break before heading to Vancouver to face the UBC Thunderbirds Jan. 22-23 at War Memorial Gym.

-UC-