CALGARY – After five matches on a busy Friday in the Jack Simpson Gym, one spot remains available for Saturday night's Husky Dino Cup championship game with either the Trinity Western Spartans or the UCLA Bruins set to take on the host Calgary Dinos for the tournament title.

UCLA will battle the Pacific Tigers at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning to wrap up the tournament, which suddenly has big implications for the Bruins. If UCLA can sweep the Tigers in straight sets, they will move on to the gold medal match on Saturday night against the Dinos, who own the best ratio in terms of sets won and lost on the tournament at 7-4. Should Pacific take one or more sets from the Bruins, the Trinity Western Spartans would then take the additional spot in the tournament final.

The Dinos and Bruins put on a show in the feature match which closed Friday's competition, with the Bruins ultimately prevailing 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 26-19, 36-34).

BOX SCORE

Despite fighting off 10 UCLA match points in the fourth set, the Dinos were still unable to advance the match to a fifth set when a service ace by Bruins setter Kevin Ker finished off an epic 36-34  battle which started when the Dinos gave up a 24-22 lead.

Along with Ker's match high 45 assists, the Bruins were led by their senior outside hitter Brett Perrine, who hit an outstanding 16 kills off of only 20 attempts. Perrine's total, along with Jeremy Casebeer's 10 kills on 16 tries, helped UCLA to a fantastic team attacking percentage of .438.

The Dinos got a terrific performance from their fifth year outside hitter as well, with Omar Langford pounding 20 kills to go along with three digs and a service ace, keeping the Calgary crowd buzzing at numerous points during the match.

#Pat Lenaour and David Egan were good once again for Calgary out of the middle as well, combining for 17 kills and six blocks.

After a solid first set victory, the improved UCLA hitting efficiency along with numerous Dinos miscues in the following three sets began to take their toll on Calgary, when the majority of their 25 attack errors and 16 service errors came. Langford had five bad serves on his own, with one critical error coming late in the fourth set marathon.

The fourth set, while thrilling, unfortunately highlighted the Dinos' struggles with unforced errors. Despite valiantly fending off 10 UCLA match points, Calgary couldn't capitalize, missing on three serves during the extra time while adding a net foul and an attack error to boot. 

Head Coach Rod Durrant knows that his team could have played better against the NCAA powerhouse Bruins.

“I don't think we had a very good second and third set,” said Durrant. “Our first ball contact broke down, and we didn't execute to the level we needed to, which gave UCLA energy and momentum that was tough to recover from.

“That said, we showed a lot of character in the fourth set,” he continued. “We battled really hard, and overall I was happy with how we finished it out, despite losing it.”

In early action on Saturday, Calgary had very little trouble with the other U.S. squad in attendance, the University of the Pacific Tigers, who they beat in straight sets by scores of 25-12, 25-12 and 25-11. Lenaour led the Dinos with five kills in the match, where 15 different Dinos saw action on the floor.

BOX SCORE

The Trinity Western Spartans made good on their two games against the American competition on Saturday, beating the UCLA Bruins in straight sets (25-20, 28-26, 25-18) before going down to the wire with the Tigers in their early evening match, winning in the fifth set (25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12). The Spartans were led by Aaron Vandenbrink against Pacific, with 16 kills in only 23 attempts through five sets.

Pacific will battle for bronze and Calgary for gold on Saturday in the Jack, with the final pairings to be determined following the UCLA-Pacific match in the morning. The bronze Medal match goes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, while the tournament final is set for a 7 p.m. start. The Dinos women's team will play their second match of the weekend against the Brandon Bobcats in between the two men's matches, with first serve set for 5 p.m. 

2009 HUSKY DINO CUP
All times local/MT…all matches in the Jack Simpson Gym

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE / RESULTS
Thursday, October 15
6 p.m. Women: UBC 3 Calgary 0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-15)
8 p.m. Men: Calgary 3 Trinity Western 1 (20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-18)
Friday, October 16
11 a.m. Men: Trinity Western 3 UCLA 0 (25-20, 28-26, 25-18)
1 p.m. Men: Calgary 3 Pacific 0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-11)
3 p.m. Women: Calgary 3 Brandon 0 (27-25, 25-16, 27-25)
5:30 p.m. Men: Trinity Western 3 Pacific 2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12)
7 p.m. Men: UCLA 3 Calgary 1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 36-34)

Saturday, October 17
11 a.m. Men: Pacific vs. UCLA
3 p.m. Men: Bronze Medal Match
5 p.m. Women: CALGARY vs. Brandon
7 p.m. Men: Gold Medal Match

MEN'S STANDINGS
1. Calgary (2-1; sets 7-4)
1. Trinity Western (2-1; sets 7-5)
3. UCLA (1-1; sets 3-4)
4. Pacific (0-2; sets 2-6)

-UC-