CALGARY – The ninth-ranked University of Calgary Dinos inched closer to the .500 mark Friday night, opening the second half of their 2009-10 women's volleyball season with a quick 3-0 (25-23, 25-11, 25-17) victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies in the Jack Simpson Gym.

BOX SCORE

Calgary improves to 5-6 on the year with the victory, while Saskatchewan drops to 1-10 under interim head coach Austin Dyer.

After surviving a scare throughout the first set, the Dinos were able to shake off the holiday rust and take control of the match in the second set, allowing just 28 points in the final two frames to grab the straight-sets win.

“They (Saskatchewan) play the game at a different speed than many of the other teams we see, so it took us a while to adjust,” said Dinos head coach Jesse Knight following the win. “But I was impressed with how we stuck together through that, we didn't let it rattle us, and we continued to compete.”

Both teams opened tentatively, with little room for either side through the opening two thirds of the first set. A pair of five-point Dinos runs bookended three straight points for the Huskies to break open a 13-13 draw and give the home side a 22-16 lead, and Calgary seemed poised to cruse to a comfortable victory. But a timeout by the prairie visitors settled the troops, and a kill by Erin McGladdery sparked a 7-3 run for the Huskies to close out the set. The third Calgary point of that sequence, however, was a kill by sophomore middle Ali Sandholm on set point as the Dinos squeaked out a 25-23 win.

From there, the Dinos improved both offensively and defensively. In a second set that was all Calgary, the home side hit at a blistering 52 per cent clip without a single attack error while the Huskies put up seven errors against eight kills for just a 3.3 per cent efficiency in the set.

Saskatchewan actually led 12-10 in the third set before Calgary rattled off 15 of the last 20 points in the match. The Huskies fought to stay alive in pushing the Dinos to four match points, which Calgary finally converted with Lindsay Russell's match-winning kill from the right side.

Senior outside hitter Raynell Lavertu led the way with nine kills for the Dinos, with Russell following with seven while Maura Hayes and Lindsey Doland added six apiece. The Huskies' Candace Hueser matched Lavertu kill-for-kill to also finish with nine, but Saskatchewan committed 25 attack errors against just 27 kills in the match to finish with a paltry 2.3 per cent efficiency.

Defensively, Lavertu added eight digs to pace the Dinos with setter Kathryn Moncks, appearing in relief of the injured Sarah Lacny, added seven to go with her 25 assists on the night. Shauna Weber led the way for Saskatchewan with nine digs on the night.

“I was really pleased with our defensive adjustments tonight,” said Knight, “and you can see how we improved with how their percentage got lower in each set. Now we just need to do the same thing tomorrow.”

The Dinos and Huskies hook up again Saturday night, with first serve at 6 p.m. MT.

-UC-