QUARTER-FINAL #4 CIS championship: Reigning champ Dinos sweep Sherbrooke

Final	1	2	3	4	5	Final
Sherbrooke ()	12	24	18			0
Calgary ()	25	26	25			3

Sherbrooke	Calgary
K: M-R Claessens Rivest - 12 B: Samuel Emond - 2 D: 2 Players (#12, #6 - 7) SA: 3 Players (#1, #11, #16 - 1)	K: Graham Vigrass - 13 B: Graham Vigrass - 7 D: Chris Hoag - 10 SA: N/A

TEAM STATISTICS	Sherbrooke	Calgary
Hitting %	.125	.432
Blocks	3.0	9.5
Digs	29	42
Aces	3	0

full stats

Photo credit Yan Dublet

LANGLEY, B.C. (CIS) – The reigning national champion Calgary Dinos easily advanced to the Final Four with a straight-set win (25-12, 26-24, 25-18) over the No. 8-seeded Sherbrooke Vert & Or in the last quarter-final of the CIS men’s volleyball championship, Friday night, at the Langley Events Centre.

Championship website (including complete stats): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mvball
 
The U of C victory sets up an interesting semifinal match-up with tournament host and No. 4-ranked Trinity Western, Saturday at 8 p.m. PST. The duel will be a rematch of last year’s national final, won 3-1 by the Dinos, and also of last weekend’s Canada West semifinal, when Calgary prevailed in five.

The top-seeded Dinos put an end to a pair of 17-droughts over the past 12 months claiming their first CIS title since 1993 last march in Kamloops, B.C., and their first Canada West banner since 1994 last Saturday in Edmonton.

Calgary utilized a hitting percentage of 43.2 per cent to thwart Sherbrooke’s defence and end any Cinderella story hopes for the Quebec finalists. The last No. 8 seed to upset the CIS championship favourites in the opening round was Dalhousie (over Laval) in 2000.

“We’re very pleased with the result,” said Calgary coach Rod Durrant. “Three straight is what we wanted to get out of it. There are some areas that we need to improve on. We know that. But at the end of the day we’re pleased to move on to the semifinal.

“I think we earned that right to play the eighth ranked team,” Durrant said of getting an easier draw in the quarter-finals. “We were the one team. They were the eighth team. We’re pleased to move on. They’re a good team. They scrapped hard and really played some scrappy defence. To get the win is what we needed and now we’re going to move forward.”

In the first set, it seemed to just take Calgary a little while to get going. The game was tight until just beyond the first technical timeout at which time Calgary took complete control. With CIS Player of the Year Graham Vigrass leading the Dinos attack with five kills in the set, Calgary quickly pulled away from a Vert et Or squad that just couldn’t stop the Dinos momentum.

Never letting Sherbrooke have a sniff, Calgary ran away with the set, finishing with a 25-12 advantage by the final point.

Calgary had just one attack error in the set and had a hitting percentage of 63.6 per cent. This was in contrast to Sherbrooke’s seven attack errors and -3.7 per cent attacking.

In the second set, the Vert et Or did get rolling. They improved their game in nearly ever facet of the match and, in doing so, didn’t trail until both teams were beyond 20 points.

But unfortunately for Sherbrooke fans, beyond 20 points is when the game changed. An attack error by Sherbrooke’s Martin Ouellet gave Calgary their first lead of the match at 22-21. And from there, the Dinos was one point better than Sherbrooke, earning a 26-24 win with the final point coming via a three-man block by Allen Meek, Curtis James and Vigrass on the Vert et Or’s Pierre-Luc Lessard.

“It’s a good team over there,” said Sherbrooke coach Marc Lussier. “We’re probably one of the smallest teams and the youngest team too. Overall I thought the guys did well. Of course they could have done better but I’m pretty much satisfied. I think this experience is good for the young ones.”

In the third set, Calgary was simply the better and more physical team. Although Sherbrooke managed to build a 10-9 lead, after that it was always going to be a Dinos victory. Calgary went on a 7-0 run that pretty much sealed the contest for the Dinos as Allen Meek helped pace Calgary to another dominating set as he had five kills to lead the Dinos in their third set win.

Calgary’s Vigrass finished with a game-high 13 kills while Meek had 11. Jay Blankenau had 44 assists while Chris Hoag led the team with 10 digs.

For Sherbrooke, Maxime-Rock Claessens Rivest had a team-leading 12kills while Hugo St. Pierre-Hould had 24 assists for the Vert et Or.

The Vert et Or will play Alberta in the consolation semifinal Saturday at 3 p.m. PST.

STAT LEADERS
 
Calgary
Kills: Graham Vigrass (13), Allen Meek (11), David Egan (8), Curtis James (8)
Points: Graham Vigrass (16.5), Allen Meek (12.5)
Blocks: Graham Vigrass (7)
Digs: Chris Hoag (10)
Service aces: None
Assists: Jay Blankenau (44)

Player of the match: Graham Vigrass
 
Sherbrooke
Kills: Maxime-Rock Claessens Rivest (12), Pierre-Marc Lussier (7), Pierre-Luc Lessard (4)
Points: Maxime-Rock Claessens Rivest (13.5)
Blocks: Samuel Emond (2)
Digs: Joel Poulin (7), Hugo St. Pierrre-Hould (7)
Service aces: Pierre-Luc Lessard (1), Maxime-Rock Claessens Rivest (1), Samuel Emond (1)
Assists: Hugo St. Pierre-Hould (24)
 
Player of the match: Hugo St. Pierre-Hould

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times LOCAL: Pacific Time)
 
NOTE:  Live webcast of all matches at http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mvball
 
Friday, March 4
 
Quarter-final #1: Laval 3, UNB 0 (25-18, 25-14, 27-25)
Quarter-final #2: Brandon 3, McMaster 1 (25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 25-15)
Quarter-final #3: Trinity 3, Alberta 1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-11)
Quarter-final #4: Calgary 3, Sherbrooke 0 (25-12, 26-24, 25-18)
 
Saturday, March 5
 
13:00 Consolation #1: UNB vs. McMaster 
15:00 Consolation #2: Alberta vs. Sherbrooke 
18:00 Semi-final #1: Laval vs. Brandon 
20:00 Semi-final #2: Trinity Western vs. Calgary  
 
Sunday, March 6
 
12:00 5th place 
15:00 Bronze medal
18:00 Championship final  
 
 
-CIS-