CALGARY – Experience got its final victory over youth Sunday afternoon as the ninth-ranked Winnipeg Wesmen played near-perfect volleyball to defeat the No. 3 Calgary Dinos 3-2 in Game 3 of their conference quarterfinal series (29-31, 26-24, 22-25, 24-26, 15-9).
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The Wesmen advance to the Canada West Final Four and the CIS Championship following the victory, while the Calgary Dinos' season comes to an abrupt halt after being ranked in the CIS top five all season, finishing with a 13-5 record – the second seed in the conference playoffs.
All three matches in the series went the maximum five sets on a weekend where very little separated the two sides.
The Dinos simply had no answer for the trio of Andrew Town, Justin Duff, and Alan Ahow, who combined for 65 of Winnipeg's 82 kills. Town in particular was monstrous, with 10 kills in the first set – a 31-29 Calgary victory – and a total of 30 on the afternoon.
“Three matches, five every night, two very good teams, and at the end of the day they were able to execute a little bit better than us,” said Calgary head coach Rod Durrant. “We were unable to slow down their middle or make a couple of adjustments that we wanted to.
“Those three guys have won a national championship and played with that fight you get from that experience.”
Nowhere was that experience more evident than in the fifth set, where the Wesmen jumped out of the gates with an early 5-0 run and didn't look back. The lead got as high as seven points at 11-4 before Calgary mounted a too-little, too-late charge, and Town's 30th kill of the night punctuated the victory at 15-9.
Winnipeg hit 75 per cent as a team in the frame, with 13 of their 15 points coming off kills.
After Calgary won a 31-29 decision in the first set, the Dinos actually had set point in the second with a 24-23 lead. A Winnipeg time out and consecutive kills from Ahow and Duff later, Calgary had missed its opportunity to go up 2-0 in the match and the Wesmen took a 26-24 win.
The Dinos never really got it going in the third set and trailed wire-to-wire, despite making a late run to come within a point of Winnipeg. The fourth set was a see-saw battle as well, with the Dinos showing tremendous fight to eke out a 26-24 victory, sending the series to a one set, winner-take-all showdown.
Outside their big three, Paul Kjos was Winnipeg's leading attacker with eight kills. Middle Maurice Williams came on midway through the match to spell Daniel Andres, ending up with four kills, while setter Daniel Lother matched that total to go with his 68 set assists.
Omar Langford led the way for the Dinos with 16 kills, while Chris Hoag had a very good outing with 14 kills and a 52 per cent efficiency. Andrew Tallas added 13.
The Dinos actually out-aced the Wesmen by a staggering 10-1 margin, but Winnipeg had the advantage in hitting percentage (46 to 34) and total kills (82 to 69).
The loss brings to a close a breakout season for the Dinos, who were hosting their first playoff series since 2002 with the hopes of reaching the CIS championship for the first time since 2003.
“We had our opportunities, and it's something that this team is going to have to learn from if we want to get to the national championship,” said Durrant. “We're all back again next year. This one's going to hurt for a while, but hopefully it motivates us all to get better next year.
“It's very disappointing. This team has worked hard and responded well to a lot of the things we've tried to do this year. We grew and took another step this year, going 13-5 in Canada West. This is a stinger, but we'll get better.”
The Canada West Final Four and CIS Championship both go at the University of Alberta Main Gym in Edmonton.
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