EDMONTON - On a night when almost everyone else on the Golden Bears volleyball roster was misfiring, the birthday boy, Ben Saxton, had his game on as he helped Alberta to straight sets win (25-22, 30-28, and 25-22) over the University of Calgary Dinos Friday night in the U of A's Main Gym.
BOX SCORE
Saxton, a native of Balzac, Alberta, finished the night with 10 kills (42 per cent attack efficiency), one ace, six digs and four blocks, earning player of the game honours in the process. While his numbers weren't the highest totals on the team, the third year left-side picked his spots well, earning clutch points and making key defensive stops.
Although top-ranked Alberta won in straight sets, the Dinos had plenty of opportunities to take a set but never seemed capable of securing the finishing point.
"There were definitely some missed opportunities tonight," said Calgary head coach Rod Durrant. "All in all, we showed that we could compete, but we just had some mental lapses that we need to get past. They're a very good team, and you have to earn everything against them."
In the second set with a 23-20 lead, the fourth-ranked Dinos emerged from a time-out only to smack a service error, giving the ball back to the Bears and closing the gap. Neither team seemed like they were going to win the second stanza as the provincial rivals committed a slew of errors and watched as the score ballooned to a 30-28 Alberta win.
After two sets Terry Danyluk's Bears had committed 14 service errors and 10 on offence, while Calgary had 10 faults from the line and just an 18 per cent success mark on offence.
With two sets in the bank Alberta looked in control for the sweep and started off with a bang in the third, jumping out to big leads and keeping the Dinos offence at bay. The Bears held a 19-10 advantage at one point, only to watch Calgary dole out four straight points and a 10-3 run.
Strong net defence and Saxton put away the game for Alberta, bumping their record to 7-0 and dropping the Dinos to 5-2.
"I think the personnel that we have realize that they are the best team in the country and this is a measuring stick for us," Durrant said. "We have another opportunity again tomorrow night."
Omar Langford paced the Calgary attack with seven kills, while Andrew Tallas added six and three other Dinos, Chris Hoag, Allen Meek and Oleg Podporin, added five each.
Joel Schmuland led the Bears with 11 but had five service errors on a team that finished with 19 red flags in total. Tim Gourlay added 10 kills in a strong game while rookie Spencer Leiske continues to impress, finishing with seven kills on 12 attempts.
The two teams meet again Saturday night, this time at 8:15 pm, in the Main Gym for the second game of the weekend series.
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