Huskies hope two wins equal playoffs

It all comes down to this:

Two must-wins and a mathematical prayer.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s volleyball team will play its final two matches of the Canada West regular season this weekend while still clinging to hope of a playoff berth.

First, the Huskies must sweep a two-game series with the visiting Mount Royal University Cougars on Friday (1 p.m.) and Saturday (1 p.m.) at the Physical Activity Centre (PAC) on the U of S campus.

Then they’ll need to cross their fingers, arms and toes in hopes that a potential mathematical tiebreaking equation works in their favour.

At 9-13, Saskatchewan is 10th in the Canada West conference with the top eight teams advancing to the playoffs.

With two wins this weekend, the Huskies can finish at 11-13 and hope that either the Manitoba Bisons, Macewan Griffins or Thompson Rivers Wolfpack get swept to force a tiebreaking situation.

“We’re coming down to some pretty tight math, but there’s still a chance,” said U of S head coach Mark Dodds, whose team has been chasing that elusive playoff spot for many years

“We’ve got to take care of business at our end and hope for a little bit of help. There were some upsets this past weekend that sort of changed the landscape of the standings, not in our favour.”

Dodds believes the Huskies need to win by 3-0 or 3-1 margins, at the worst, this weekend and hope that Trinity Western can win both of its matches over Manitoba 3-0 or 3-1.

On paper, that may be the most realistic scenario.

“Right now, it could be potentially Manitoba, Macewan and us for the tie,” explained Dodds. “Thompson Rivers could end up with 11 wins as well. It could be a four-way tie if everything went the right way for us.

“Thompson Rivers has to play UBC- Okanagan, the bottom team, and Macewan has to play Brandon, the second-last team. Manitoba has to play Trinity Western and they have to travel to (first-place) Trinity Western (Langley, B.C.), so that would be the match that Trinity needs to win both of those and we’d prefer if it was quite handily, and we have to win both games against Mount Royal, again pretty handily, to end up tied for that last spot.

“As far as sets won and lost, it’s tight.”

This weekend marks the final home matches for three graduating players: Regan Wiebe, Alexandra Frank and Georgia Hurry.