CALGARY – A week in advance of their seniors' night in the Jack Simpson Gym, the Calgary Dinos' three fifth year players each posted 16 kills to lead their side to a 3-1 win over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack Saturday night (25-23, 21-25, 25-14, 25-23).
BOX SCORE
Lauren Perry, Julie Young, and Holly Harper nailed down 16 kills apiece for the Dinos, who improve to 14-4 on the season with one week remaining. Calgary is all but guaranteed second place in the final conference standings, their dreams of first place having ended with Alberta's 3-1 win over Regina Saturday night.
One day removed from eliminating the WolfPack (5-13) from the post-season race, the Dinos bounced back from a tough second set to take the third convincingly and the fourth with an abundance of grit and determination.
TRU scored eight straight points early in the second set, six of which came off Calgary attack errors, and the WolfPack eventually opened up a 10-point lead at 18-8. Calgary clawed back to within four points, but their visitors from Kamloops evened the match at one set each with a 25-21 win.
Cue the statement.
The WolfPack scored the first point of the third set, but that was pretty much where it came to an end. Calgary scored the next 12 consecutive points to go up 12-1, cruising from there to a comfortable 25-14 win.
“The third set we won, and we won impressively, because we blocked, we defended, and we were in system, and they had no chance,” said Jesse Knight, head coach of the Dinos. “The fourth set we won out of system. When things weren't perfect, we were still finding ways to score, and we were stopping them. They played really well in that fourth set, and we defended really well like we did the entire match.”
Both teams put up impressive defensive numbers, with 108 total digs between them. TRU actually out-dug the Dinos by a 57-51 margin on the night and posted a better hitting percentage in the fourth set, but Calgary put down a whopping 21 kills in the final set. Laura Spence broke open a tight 22-21 Dinos lead with back-to-back service aces, and Perry's 16th kill of the night punctuated the Calgary win.
“The other thing we're really excited about is that we had two players in Ali Sandholm and Laura Wilson who were unbelievable last night but didn't really get on the floor tonight,” Knight went on. “That's only because the seven that were on the floor tonight were so good. That makes it very difficult for teams to prepare for us, and that's the really impressive thing for me about this weekend.”
Thompson Rivers posted respectable attack statistics, finishing at nearly 24 per cent as a team. Anna Dyakiewicz led the way with 14 kills, while Amanda Frayne added a dozen. Dyakiewicz and Laura Plouffe each had 14 digs as well, matching the game-high of Calgary libero Raynell Lavertu.
Middles Laura Littlejohn and Laura Spence had eight and six kills, respectively, for Calgary to follow up the seniors' 16-kill performances. Young added a dozen digs for Calgary, while setter Sarah Lacny had 56 assists for the Dinos.
Both teams close out the regular season at home next weekend. Thompson Rivers hosts Regina, while Calgary plays host to the Simon Fraser Clan.
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