The USask Huskies men’s volleyball team has been in rebuilding mode for a number of years, and those efforts have paid off, thanks in part to recruitment of strong candidates like Humboldt’s own Jay Eichorst. This year, Eichorst contributed to the strongest finish for the Huskies in USport volleyball in years. The club took the bronze medal at USport nationals, hosted by Brandon University last weekend.
Eichorst has been playing for the last three seasons with the team, recruited directly out of Humboldt Collegiate and club volleyball programs. Eichorst is enrolled in the College of Education with a strong interest in the middle years stream.
Eichorst has always been a strong defensive player, and this year after some consultation with this coach, he took on the libero role. A libero, who wears a special jersey that confines him to the back row, is typically one of the strongest defense players on the team. An expert in digging and passing, Eichorst provided the defensive prowess that allowed the Huskies to be the “comeback kids” on several occasions in their playoff run.
“It’s been around 21 years since the last volleyball team medalled,” Eichorst said. “We went top four around 10 years ago, and two years ago we were on the national stage. It didn’t turn out too well; it was my first year and we finished seventh. This year we had mostly the same squad as last year with only one or two changes.
The first day in, we set our goals on Nationals and winning a championship, and we believed we could do it. That became our drive, our end goal. We knew the steps we had to take to try to put ourselves in the best situation.”
As the season progressed and the team showed positive results, mission one was to secure a home playoff berth. They landed that home court advantage, but they faced Trinity Western University of BC, traditionally a powerhouse in western Canadian rankings.
“It was a three game series that went all three games,” Eichorst recounted. “The first two games went to five sets, but then we ended up sweeping them 3-0 in the third game to move on to the quarter final. That was big for our journey because the Trinity Western Spartans haven’t missed a national championship in 10 or 12 years.”
That victory resulted in a huge confidence boost, eliminating one of USport men’s volleyball heavy hitters.
The final four took the Huskies to Winnipeg where they faced the University of Winnipeg in a semi-final matchup. They fell in four to Winnipeg and had to bounce back in the bronze medal game against UBC to see their journey continue. The comeback kids went to work.
“That was nothing short of fireworks because we went down 2 games to zero, so we fought back to get a reverse sweep and win in 5 sets. That was a crazy weekend and other boost of confidence knowing that we never gave up.”
With the bronze secured in Canada West, it was off to Nationals in Brandon. Seeded fifth, the Huskies went toe to toe with Queen’s University in the opening quarter final. USask had faced Queen’s in early exhibition competition, so they worked to adjust their game plan heading into the matchup.
“We came out strong, but didn’t win the first set. So again, we had to battle back to win in 4 sets, so again, that gave us confidence that we took down Ontario’s number one team. We love to bounce back.”
The semi-final brought the Huskies face to face with the hometown Brandon Bobcats and a wild atmosphere definitely pulling for their Manitoba heroes. It was a turn of fortune for the Saskie boys in that they dominated in the first two games, only to fall in a reverse sweep and be relegated to the bronze medal match.
In that bronze game against Sherbrooke from Quebec, the Huskies returned to their standard operating procedure by dropping the first set and storming back to take the next three and secure the bronze medal for their first podium appearance in two decades.
“That group of guys was awesome to be a part of all year around. To be a part of history with that win is pretty cool. I don’t know if it has entirely sunk in yet; we’re still kind of riding the high of winning it.”
Jay has two more years of USport eligibility, but he’s entering the final year of his program and will be heading into his four-month teaching practicum this fall. The cards have lined up for one more year of USport play. After that, it’s time to weigh the options to follow the call of the court or the call of the classroom.