SASKATOON – A combined 34 kills from the outside-hitting duo of Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) and Mathias Elser (Calgary) fell short to No. 8-ranked Saskatchewan in five sets (25-21, 22-25, 25-17, 17-25, 7-15) on Saturday at the Physical Activity Complex.
 
The Spartans (11-5) surrendered another 2-1 lead to the Huskies (11-5), who were led by yet another strong performance of 16 kills from Dylan Mortensen.
 
Elser and Rempel put down 18 and 16 respective kills, but the Spartans struggled to hit the ball efficiently, tallying 24 attacking errors for a team hitting percentage of .231.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
TWU took the first set 25-21, hitting .556 while making four team blocks.
 
The Huskies brought the match into balance in the second set, earning a 25-22 set victory in a scrappy frame of play. Neither team hit the ball well, but a .150 hitting percentage from the Huskies edged past TWU's .091 to tie the match.
 
The Spartans rallied back to take a 2-1 lead over the match in the third set, defeating Saskatchewan 25-17.
 
The Huskies got back at the Spartans with a 25-17 fourth-set victory to tie the match again.
 
The Huskies played an incredible fifth set, hitting .700 as a team while making five blocks. Saskatchewan only made one error in the set, taking it 15-7 to secure their 11^th victory of the 2022-23 season.
 
NOTABLE

• This is TWU's first losing streak spanning four games since 2016. The Spartans got swept in back-to-back weekend slates against Alberta and Calgary spanning from Jan. 8-16, 2016.
• The Spartans struggled to get past a strong Saskatchewan blocking phase. The Huskies made 27 blocks, which made a big difference when compared to TWU's 15.
• TWU is 39-21 all-time against Saskatchewan, holding a 7-3 record over the Huskies in their last 10 matchups.

UP NEXT
The Spartans are at UBC Okanagan on Jan. 20-21. Catch all of the action live on Canada West TV.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby, as well as women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.

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