KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The sixth-seeded Calgary Dinos needed five sets and then some overtime but pulled off a huge come-from-behind 3-2 upset of the Atlantic champion Dalhousie Tigers Friday at the CIS men's volleyball championship, advancing to Saturday's semi-final round.

BOX SCORE

Trailing two sets to none after Dalhousie took 25-21 and 26-24  wins, the Dinos took control in the third set and won the final three frames by scores of 25-20, 25-19, and 16-14.

Calgary will face archrival and two-time defending national champion Alberta Saturday night with a trip to Sunday's national championship game on the line. The Battle of Alberta kicks off at 8 p.m. local (9 p.m. MT) from the Tournament Capital Centre at Thompson Rivers University.

Maybe it was nerves, but the Dinos struggled with their serve receive in the first two sets of their first CIS championship tournament since 2003. After giving up a set point opportunity in the second set and then falling 26-24, the Dinos were in disarray and the Tigers seemed poised to pounce, with visions of a 3-1 win over the Dinos on the same court in early January in the back of their heads.

Cue the comeback.

“To be honest with you, I didn't say a lot,” said Calgary head coach Rod Durrant after his first-ever CIS tournament win. “We had some fifth-year guys step up, and there was a character check for this group between the second and third sets. We made a couple of changes, with Chris (Hoag) and Jay (Blankenau) playing very well down the stretch, but mostly we just started to play the way we can. We finally said 'to heck with the result, let's just win the next point' and we built on that.

“Absolutely there was some tightness early, and Dalhousie put the pressure on us by serving aggressively, but it shows the character of this group and the belief they have in each other to come back from a two-set deficit in a match of this magnitude.”

Third-year right side Graham Vigrass had a spectacular outing for the Dinos, who are now 8-1 all-time against Dalhousie at the national tournament. Vigrass pounded 20 kills against just five errors on 50 attempts and added 10 digs to pace the Dinos, earning player-of-the-match honours in the process.

“There were some nerves early, and they have some serves that we haven't seen before so it took our passers a while to get used to things,” said Vigrass, a member of the junior national team. “But Jay really brought a new energy out there to the floor when he came in, and everybody else really fed off that.”

Blaneknau, also of the junior national team, took over from starter Ciaran McGovern as the third set opened, and the Dinos seemed to find their legs while the Tigers dropped off slightly. Blankenau finished the match with a team-high 32 assists, adding seven digs. McGovern matched Vigrass' team-high 10 digs despite seeing limited action in the final three sets.

Curtis James added 12 kills for the Dinos, adding a service ace on match point to seal the deal fo Calgary. Second team All-Canadian Oleg Podporin pounded nine.

The tandem of Sander Ratsep and Max Burt combined for two thirds of Dalhousie's 62 kills on the night. Ratsep, a first team All-Canadian and the Atlantic MVP, put up 28 kills on 51 attempts for an incredible .431 efficiency in a losing cause for the Tigers, while Burt added 13 kills. Graeme Higgins led all players with 15 digs in the only one of the four Friday quarterfinals that went the full five sets.

After guaranteeing that Canada West will receive four berths in next year's CIS championship at Trinity Western thanks to their victory, the Dinos turn their attention to upending the two-time defending national champion Alberta Golden Bears as they prepare for Saturday's semi-final – a tall order, Durrant conceded.

“We're playing the best, but you train all year to play the best,” he said. “We're going to be excited, but we're going to have to play our best volleyball against Alberta – and we know that.”

The Dinos and Bears split their two regular season meetings in week one of the conference season, with Calgary snapping Alberta's 24-match conference win streak with their 3-0 victory. The teams have met three times in CIS championship play, with Alberta winning all three meetings – the most recent coming in the Dinos' last appearance in 2003, also in the national semi-final.

The other semi-final sees top-seeded Laval take on Trinity Western, while early consolation matches Saturday see Queen's face Montreal while host Thompson Rivers faces Dalhousie.

-UC-