2 Big wins

We just had our final games of the first term and came out with two VERY important wins vs the UofS Huskies. Going into the match we were sitting at 2-6 and did not want to add any more obstacles for the second term.
The first night we came out ready to go and so did the Huskies. Going into the game the Huskies were behind us in the Canada West standings but still was not a team that we could take lightly. We came out with some great energy and playing really well in the first set and cruised to a 25-17 victory. The game got a little sloppy in the next couple sets as neither team was attacking at a high level. Sask ended up winning the next two sets and were all of a sudden up 2-1 which to most in the war memorial gym was a shocker. We knew coming into the 4th set that we had some work to do and we really needed to execute our game plan and play aggressively to come out on top. The 4th set proved to be an exciting one. Both teams exhanged points for most of the match until we were able to pull away slightly after 20. Chris Klassen game into the game as a blocking sub and got a HUGE block for us to give us a the advantage. After exchanging a few more points we snuck out with a 25-23 with a big hammer block by Joco and Springs. (Joe Cordonier and Milo Warren)
Going into the 5th set we really put together a great effort and played a nice 5th set. We came out and earned a 3 point lead although the huskies showed a bit of fight and clawed back to tie the frame at 4's. we went on an 11-2 run to close out the game highlighted by Klassen again who came in and put on a serving and play making clinic to propel the birds to victory.Springs led us in kills the with 16 kills while Demijan Savija tallied 12. Cary Brett posted another nice stat line for the T-Birds in the middle with nine kills on .533 hitting to go along with one solo and two block assists.
After the game we were fortunate enough to come out with the win but again an inconsistent performance. We knew that going into saturday we needed a tougher performance

Saturday night we entered the match knowing it would be our last of the first semester and we really wanted to go into the break on a positive note. We also wanted to prove we could put together a more consistent match. When it as all said an done we came out with a 3-1 win. The match was for sure more consistent then the prior but we still had some opportunities to be a very efficient squad that we missed out. Demijan Savija had a huge night for us, pounding home 23 kills with a 44% attack efficiency which is statistically his best night as a Thunderbird. Offensively most of the team was performing well. We hit above .300% in every set but the second.

We now have the Christmas break and will resume play in January. The month of December will offer a rest from competition but we will still be training hard during the exam period. Look forward to seeing everyone back at War Memorial for our next home games Jan 21/22

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!
-Team volleyhype