EDMONTON - The two-time defending CIS champions opened their season showing exactly why they've earned those titles as the top-ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears came out strong against the  No. 4-ranked University of Calgary Dinos and persevered against changing momentum to win their opening game in four sets (25-15, 24-26, 27-25, and 25-23).

BOX SCORE

The result came off of a balanced effort for the Alberta squad, with juniors Spencer Leiske and Jason DeRocco, as well as senior Thomas Jarmoc, each contributing 14 kills for the Evergreen & Gold.

The opening set was far from balanced between the two nationally-ranked teams, however, since Calgary's 10% attack percentage was no match for Alberta's 50% that included 7-2 and 6-2 runs before a service error by Calgary left-side Don MacNeill ended the first set.

The Bears were able to jump out to a 4-1 lead in the following set, but committing errors of their own and encountering a Dino squad that amply improved upon the home team's generosity gave Calgary the lead at the first technical timeout (8-6) and, from then on, neither team could pull away from their opponent.

The Bears managed to enjoy a 24-23 advantage to potentially end the nail-biter, but a Golden Bears attack met a Calgary block that glanced off of Alberta's Leiske before falling out of bounds, allowing the Dinos to take control and deadlock the sets at one apiece.

Making up for his accidental error, Leiske put the Bears up 26-25 at the end of the third set with two consecutive kills that overwhelmed the Calgary defense and, after an amazing rally that volleyed between the two sides at great length, an errant attack by senior middle Oleg Podporin gave the Bears the set.

The parity between the provincial rivals continued into the final set before DeRocco ended the match with a decisive kill into the middle of the Calgary side.

DeRocco and his older brother, Mike, would finish the game with four and five service errors, respectively, but the two Winnipeggers countered these numbers with Jason tying the game-high 14 kills and Mike leading the Bears with 41 assists.

Leading the Dinos offensive categories was junior middle Ciaran McGovern with 23 assists and Toronto native Omar Langford with 12 kills.

The teams play again tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at the U of A's Main Gym.

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