CALGARY – It wasn't the easiest of their straight-sets victories on the season, but the No. 3 University of Calgary Dinos still managed to get past the ninth-ranked Thompson Rivers WolfPack 3-0 (26-24, 26-24, 25-23) Friday night to open their weekend series in the Jack Simpson Gym.

BOX SCORE

The win improves Calgary's undefeated season to 13-0, while Thompson Rivers falls to 5-8 with the loss.

The set scores rather than the match score give a better indication of the flow of play, as the WolfPack continued to battle throughout the night but fell just short in all three sets as Calgary won by the minimum two points in each.

“We have to clean up our side of the floor, certainly, but they competed really hard tonight and put up some good defence,” said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant of his opponents. “They put some pressure on us at the net at the end. We knew they would come in here and scrap for a win, and we're thankful to get the win, but we know we have to improve on some areas.”

The match featured a total of 36 tie scores and 17 lead changes as neither team was able to build up much of a cushion until midway through the third set. Calgary took the first two in extra points by identical 26-24 scores, but then settled down in the third and went on a run as the score ran through the teens. With the score 12-11, the Dinos were able to embark on a match-high 6-0 run to take control 18-11. That lead extended to 22-14 as the defending CIS champions seemed poised to cruise to the match win.

Not so fast.

Though the Dinos did end up winning the set 25-23, the WolfPack battled back yet again and ended on a 9-3 run, defending five straight match points along the way with Kevin Tillie serving. Middle Joel Caschetto was involved in consecutive stuff blocks of Curtis James#, Graham Vigrass#, and Allen Meek as TRU came within one point at 24-23 and force Durrant into a time out. Finally, on their sixth opportunity, Vigrass ended it with his match-high 12th kill of the evening.

“We didn't make some good choices,” Durrant said of the late run. “We passed the ball well, but we were getting shut down on our attack. They had three stuff blocks in the last five points, but that happens. They settled down, and we were confident coming out of the time out to execute a good point and finish off the match.”

Vigrass' dozen kills was complemented by 10 apiece from James and Meek for Calgary while Chris Hoag and setter Jay Blankenau each contributed five. Tillie, who saw limited action in the third set, still managed to lead his team with eight kills on 26 attempts, with Caschetto and rookie Casey Knight contributing six apiece.

Calgary out-hit Thompson Rivers by a 26 percent to 17 percent margin, while the visiting WolfPack had the edge in blocks, 8.0 against 6.5.

The two teams renew acquaintances Saturday night, with first serve slated for 8 p.m. MT.

-UC-