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Inspired No. 7 Spartans upset No. 1 Dinos
Eric Kerkhoven, UC Sports Information
CALGARY – After a heart-breaking loss on Friday night in
which they fought back valiantly from an early deficit, the #7
Trinity Western Spartans made good on their second attempt at an
upset bid on Saturday, beating the #1 University of Calgary Dinos
by a set-score of 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-20).
The Dinos could not weather the Spartans’ attack on Saturday
evening, which got a superb 21 kill performance from second year
outside hitter Steven Marshall. Marshall connected on 46% of his
attacks, had six digs and two service aces to round out his
match-breaking performance.
Trinity Western held a 58-48 attacking advantage over the Dinos,
and also out-dug the home team 44-35, which ultimately proved the
difference. Calgary did best the Spartans in the blocking
department with 12.5 to their eight.
Calgary took the first set of the evening, which featured strong
hitting from both clubs. It was Calgary’s ability to block
the Spartan attack in the first game that really made the
difference, making 3.5 blocks to Trinity’s zero. Pat Lenaour
had four kills in the first set to lead the Dinos, and finished
with nine in total.
However Trinity did not seem interested in letting Calgary go up
two for the second straight evening, as a text-book tip over the
double block from Marshall with the second game tight at 18-17
sparked a 6-2 run to finish out the set.
Trinity kept rolling from there, escaping some late mistakes and
fending off a strong push from Calgary to gain the 26-24 victory.
The third set featured very strong kills from the Spartans, with
the Langley-based team feeding off of them one-by-one
emotionally.
The Dinos seemed to come alive again in the fourth set with their
backs against the wall, getting very good performances from their
middles, David Egan and Oleg Podporin. Both big men had key blocks
in a couple mid-game runs where Calgary seemed ready to break away
from the Spartans and push it to a fifth set.
The Spartans refused to step aside however, staying with the Dinos
and finally breaking away for good after a spectacular rally while
up 21-20. Rudy Verhoeff, a graduate of Calgary Christian High
School, ended the back-and-forth affair with a stifling block on
Podporin to go up two, which in fact carried the Spartans to the
match victory.
Along with Marshall, the Spartans got a great performance from
outside hitter Marc Howatson, who had 15 kills, while Verhoeff had
10 in the supporting effort.
“As we knew, it was going to be a tough match,” said
Dinos head coach Rod Durrant, who watches his team fall to 6-2 in
the loss. “But we definitely did some good things. We got the
month off now to get healthy and evaluate where we need to improve,
and we’ll go from there.
“Trinity deserves all the credit tonight; they played an
outstanding game,” concluded Durrant.
The Dinos leaned heavily on their men in the middle, getting 22
kills combined from Egan and Podporin, while Curtis James chipped
in with 13 kills, seven digs and five blocks from the outside.
Both teams sit at 6-2 in Canada West after the weekend split, and
will resume play in January after the winter exam break. Trinity
Western will host the Alberta Golden Bears for a two game set on
January 8th and 9th, while the Calgary Dinos will invite the
Saskatchewan Huskies, who upset the Golden Bears Saturday evening
in five sets, for two games on the same weekend.
Source:
Eric Kerkhoven
UC Sports Information
University of Calgary Athletics
