The Winnipeg Wesmen are going into the off-season earlier than surely they hoped after a loss Saturday night.

Darian Picklyk had a match-high 12 digs in his final match as a Wesmen as the UWinnipeg men's volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-17) Canada West conference decision to the Saskatchewan Huskies at the Duckworth Centre.

The loss sent Winnipeg to 8-16 on the season and on the outside looking in on the eight-team playoff bracket, which opens next week. Winnipeg finished the season one match behind Manitoba for the final playoff spot. 

Picklyk, left side Eric Dornez, setter Matt Klysh and libero/left side Jeff Peitsch were each honoured in a pre-match ceremony for Seniors Night. 

The team had adopted a "Why Not Us" tagline for this season of high expectations, but in the end couldn't find enough wins to extend the careers of players like Picklyk, who will leave the Wesmen as its all-time leader in digs. 

Dylan Mortensen finished with 17 kills and, in so doing, became the Canada West conference's all-time kills leader for a career, passing Mount Royal's Tyler Schmidt and finishing his conference career with 1,490 kills. 

Levi Olson led the Huskies (17-7) with 18 kills.

The Wesmen got 14 kills from Nigel Nielsen, and hit .088 on the night. Liam Kristjanson had seven kills. Kristjanson also had three aces, a solo block and four block assists. 

Picklyk, meanwhile, will finish his Wesmen career with 866 digs, good for sixth all-time in conference history.