No. 2 Dinos sweep prairie foes

CALGARY – The No. 2-ranked University of Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball squad capitalized on its opponent’s mistakes while maintaining its own steady play to sweep the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-17) in both teams’ first action of 2010 Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.

In a match that never really seemed to get much flow, both teams seemed uninspired at times but it was the Dinos that were able to keep up consistent play, improving to 7-2 on the season. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, falls to 5-4.

“As a team we played with a constant energy, not having inconsistencies and giving up runs,” said fourth-year Calgary head coach Rod Durrant. “That’s something we’ve really been working on over the break, so this was a good way to come back to league play after so much time off. But Saskatchewan is a good team and I expect that they will play much better tomorrow night, so we’ll have to be ready for that.”

A stellar night by fourth year left side Curtis James led the way for Calgary. James put up nine kills on 15 tries with just two errors to pace the Calgary attack, while third-year setter Ciaran McGovern looked smooth distributing the ball to his offensive weapons and creating several one-on-one opportunities against Huskies blockers.

Saskatchewan’s longest scoring run of the night came with the strains of O Canada still echoing in the rafters of the Jack Simpson Gym, putting up four consecutive points to take an early 6-3 lead in the opening set. Calgary responded from a time out to score 10 of the following 12 points to grab momentum and control. Despite being out-killed 12-9 in the first set, the Dinos came up victorious with a 25-21 win.

From there, Calgary’s offence took off, committing just five errors the rest of the night while hitting 44 per cent in the second set and 50 in the third – a pace the Huskies were unable to match. A stellar outing from Ben Bourgeois, who had 10 kills on 11 attempts with no errors, wasn’t enough to counter the spread-out offence displayed by Calgary, and the Dinos took the final two sets by relatively comfortable 25-19 and 25-17 scores.

Geoff Zerr was also impressive for the Huskies with seven kills on eight tries, but the other two of Saskatchewan’s leading hitters – Alwyn Piche and Matt Busse – each put up nearly as many errors as kills. In the serving department, too, Calgary held an impressive advantage with eight aces against 10 errors while the Huskies committed 15 errors against just one ace.

Chris Hoag and David Egan put up six kills each for the Dinos, with Sam Mainville and McGovern adding four each. McGovern was also the team’s leading blocker, figuring in six of the team’s eight blocks on the night.

The Dinos and Huskies close out their weekend series Saturday night in the Jack, with first serve set for 8 p.m. MT.

Source:

Ben Matchett
Sports Information Director
University of Calgary Dinos