EDMONTON - The Calgary Dinos found some much-sought-after consistency Sunday afternoon in a straight sets victory (27-25, 25-19, 25-22) over the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack to capture the bronze medal at the Canada West men's volleyball Final Four in the Pavilion at the University of Alberta.

BOX SCORE

The Dinos looked very good in winning two sets during Saturday's semifinal loss to the Trinity Western Spartans, but head coach Rod Durrant noted that they needed to work on sustaining that effort for an entire game. Durrant got his wish Sunday, as the Dinos were able to minimize errors in all three sets while compiling a .350 attack percentage for the game.

“We played much better today. We had some good performances from our left-sides," said the fourth-year head coach. "They passed the ball better; our libero stepped up and passed the ball, and I thought we were able to sustain that for the three sets,” he said.

But while the Dinos attack was able to shine through, led by Don MacNeill with 13 kills, Durrant was also quick to point out that the game was a bronze medal match between two teams with their tickets to Nationals booked.

“I don't think the same velocity of serves coming at you; I don't think the energy was normally the way we'd see it,” he admitted.

“That said, we still passed the ball better, and I think that's what we wanted to do: we wanted to improve on our performance from yesterday and we did.”

TRU head coach Pat Hennelly echoed Durrant's statements, noting that, while seeding had yet to be determined, both teams knew that their semifinal losses probably meant they would wind up in the bottom half of the Nationals bracket.

“We talked about having tough game, and between us and Calgary, we're looking at Dalhousie and Laval as potential matchups. Those are two tough teams regardless. I don't know who we're going to get, but we know it's going to be tough. We know we're going to face someone in the top end of the bracket,” he explained.

“The loss to Alberta (on Saturday) really sealed our fate as to who we're going to get.”

Canada West Rookie of the Year Kevin Tillie, who had 10 kills, led TRU offensively for the second-straight day. While they didn't quite match Calgary's offensive effectiveness, they did manage a .276 attack percentage and were above .300 for the first two sets.

Both Calgary and TRU will join Alberta and TWU at Nationals March 12-14, which the Wolfpack are hosting.

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