CALGARY – Though they were absolutely dominant in the two sets they won, the seventh-ranked University of Calgary Dinos couldn't carry that consistency through the remainder of the match as they dropped their season-opener in Canada West women's volleyball to the Winnipeg Wesmen 3-2 (25-18, 16-25, 13-25, 25-20, 15-11) Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.

BOX SCORE

The win improves Winnipeg's record to 1-1. The teams will close out their weekend series Saturday night.

Neither side played particularly inspiring volleyball on the evening, but in the end it was the Wesmen who stuck with it long enough to emerge with the victory – which made for a very disappointed Calgary coach.

“We made 15 unforced errors in the first set,” said third-year bench boss Jesse Knight, “but we showed we're a really good team in the second and third. We played well two sets out of five. I'm obviously very disappointed, that's not our best volleyball. I think Winnipeg came in here and did exactly what they wanted to do.

“It's still growing pains. We're young, and we have to learn to work through this.”

A total of 13 attack errors for Calgary gave the Wesmen a 25-18 victory in the opening set. Calgary responded and played much more efficiently in the following two frames, opening up big early leads in both en route to commanding 25-16 and 25-13 victories.

It all fell apart late in the fourth, however. With Calgary leading 18-17, the Wesmen went on a 7-2 run aided by four Dinos attack errors to win the set 25-20, and a 4-0 run for the visitors early in the fifth proved too much for Calgary to overcome.

Carleen Kruschel led the way for Winnipeg with 14 kills on 45 swings, with Sonia Rossy adding 12 and Lauren Sears 10 kills for the victorious Wesmen. Calgary responded with a 17-kill night from Lindsey Doland, with Maura Hayes adding 14 and Melanie Miazga 11.

Defence was a feature on both sides of the floor, with Winnipeg out-digging the Dinos by a 62-56 margin. Kruschel and setter Brittany Habing dug up 13 apiece for Winnipeg, while Calgary libero Brooke Halvorsen led all players with 18.

-UC-