CALGARY – After dropping the opening set 25-19, the third-ranked Calgary Dinos won three straight to defeat the Manitoba Bisons 3-1 (19-25, 25-13, 25-21, 28-26) in Canada West men's volleyball action Saturday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.

BOX SCORE

The win improves Calgary to 3-1 on the young 2009-10 season, while Manitoba falls to 3-3 after the two-match weekend sweep at the hands of the Dinos.

Any momentum the Bisons may have received from the opening-set win quickly disappeared as the Dinos shot out to an 8-1 lead to open the second set en route to a lopsided 25-13 score.

“Manitoba came out and pushed really hard in the first set, and we struggled with our first ball contact,” said fourth-year Dinos coach Rod Durrant. “In the second we came out with a lot more poise and played steady volleyball.

“The fourth set was really a battle, you had to work for every point. I thought we stayed in there and really competed hard to the end, and we were rewarded with a win. We're very pleased to get the two wins this weekend.”

The pivotal second set did not go well for the Bisons, who committed nine errors in the frame against just seven kills while Calgary cruised to a nearly 36 per cent efficiency on offence. The third set score was closer than the play would indicate, with Calgary holding a 22-15 lead before a late mini-rally by Manitoba made the score close at the end.

The fourth set saw the Bisons lead by as many as six points at 17-11, and the match seemed destined for a fifth game. Calgary climbed back into it but Manitoba stayed in front long enough to face set point at 24-22, when Chris Hoag and Graham Vigrass scored back-to-back kills to keep the Dinos alive. Calgary staved off another Bisons set point when Chris Voth's serve hit the tape, and Vigrass' 15th kill of the night put it away for the Dinos 28-26 to claim the match.

The 15 kills by Vigrass was the highest of any player, but Hoag was another key story with 12 kills and a 43 per cent efficiency rating to earn player of the match honours. Curtis James added nine for the Dinos, while David Egan had seven kills along with a hand in eight blocks as Calgary won the battle at the net with 14 stuffs against 8.5 for Manitoba.

Dane Pischke led the way for the Bisons with 14 kills with Voth hot on his heels with a dozen.

The Bisons return to Winnipeg to play a road match against their archrivals, the Wesmen, next Saturday, while Calgary heads to Kamloops for a date with the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, who will host the 2010 CIS Championship next March,

“TRU is a good team, they host nationals, and we've played them already this year and know they're a solid, all-around volleyball team,” said Durrant. “We need to take a couple days' rest and get ready for next week.”

-UC-