LANGLEY, B.C. – The No. 3 ranked Calgary Dinos were simply the better team in, quite literally, every aspect of Monday night's game as they rolled to a strong 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-21) win over the UBC-Okanagan Heat in the first round of the Spartans Holiday Classic.
BOX SCORE
The win puts Calgary in the tournament semifinals where they will play the UBC Thunderbirds Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
In the opening set, the underdog Heat – who play out of the BCCAA (British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association) and are the No. 2 ranked team in the CCAA (Canadian Colleges Athletic Association) – put up a good fight early on, hanging in with a much more physical team from Calgary, and only trailed 8-7 at the first break.
But then the defending CIS champions took control, going on an explosive 17-7 run and proving why they are amongst the best university teams in Canada. In a sign of things to come, the Dinos hit 43.8 per cent compared to just 4.0 per cent by UBC-Okanagan and outblocked the Heat 4.5 to 1.0 en route to the victory.
And the second set was pretty much déjà vu. Like the first frame, UBC-Okanagan trailed 8-7 at the first technical timeout and was hanging with Calgary. But then, like round one, Calgary pulled out to a 13-9 advantage, the Heat took an ineffectual timeout and the Dinos raced to a convincing win, this time 25-15.
In the third and final set, UBC-Okanagan only trailed 8-7 but, like twice before, eventually succumbed to a more mature Dinos squad as Calgary finished the match in sharp fashion, cleaning up with a 25-21 victory.
Calgary finished with a 45.2 hitting percentage compared to UBC-Okanagan's 11.4 per cent. The Dinos were led offensively by
Curtis James, who had 11 kills, and defensively by
Blake Giles, who had a game high 10 digs.
The Heat were led by Nate Speijer and Mark Broome who had 11 and 10 kills respectively. Preston Tucker had a team high 25 assists and five digs.
The Heat will play Dalhousie in one of the consolation semifinals Tueday 1:00 p.m.
Match Notes: Both teams finished with 16 digs each…Calgary had six service aces to UBC-Okanagan's two…James finished with an 83.3 attack percentage.
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