CALGARY – Fourth-year middle Graham Vigrass had a sensational night for the Calgary Dinos, putting up 23 kills – but it was his last, and his most unspectacular, that finally put the finishing touches on a tight 3-2 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym (25-27, 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 15-8).

BOX SCORE

Vigrass, the 2010 CIS championship MVP, finally ended a marathon night of volleyball in the Jack at 11:01 p.m. by pouncing on a loose ball as the teams scrambled on both sides of the court, extending Calgary's conference record to 9-0 on the season with a 15-8 win in the fifth set. UBC fell to 4-7 with the loss.

It was a dominant fifth set for the Dinos, following the pattern where Calgary emerged by comfortable margins in the three sets they won while struggling on serve receive in the first and fourth sets. A 27-25 UBC win in the first gave way to back-to-back 25-18 wins for the Dinos before the Thunderbirds responded 25-22 in the fourth.

“We just broke down on our serve receive in the fourth, and we gave up a run of six points,” said Calgary head coach Rod Durrant. “Against a good team like UBC, you give them momentum and energy and it was tough to battle back from. That said, the fifth set we came out from the first point to the last and really executed very well in all aspects of the game. We served really aggressively, and we passed the ball which allowed us to stay in system.”

Vigrass committed four errors on the night, and all four came in the first set. After that, he went 18-for-23 from the middle, finishing the night with 23 kills and a .500 attack efficency. Calgary's other middles also saw success, with David Egan connecting for nine kills on just 13 attempts while Patrick Lenaour went 2-for-3 in relief of Vigrass during the second set.

From the outside, Allen Meek contributed 16 kills while Curtis James added 15.

The Thunderbirds, who battled back several times on the night, got a sterling performance from Demijan Savija with 18 kills in a losing cause. Savija matched Vigrass kill-for-kill during the first four sets and was key to UBC's fourth-set victory. Ben Chow, who came on in relief later in the match, followed up with nine kills while Cary Brett added seven. Blair Bann, the reigning CIS libero of the year, put up 20 digs – better than half his team's total.

As a team, the Dinos out-killed UBC 74-52, had the edge in blocks 9-8, and dug up 57 balls against the 'Birds' 39.

“We had a lot of good performances tonight. David and Graham were both good in the middle, Jay (setter Blankenau) set the ball very well, and Blake Giles really took control in the backcourt for us,” Durrant said. “It's a good win, but we know that UBC's good so we need to come out tomorrow night and be ready for that.”

First serve for the rematch is slated for 8 p.m. MT Saturday night.

-UC-