CALGARY – While a dominant second set sparked hope for the hometown Calgary Dinos, a relentless team attack from the Manitoba Bisons in the late going ultimately swung the match in the favour of the visitors by a score of 3-1 (25-22, 11-25, 25-18, 25-20).
Dane Pischke was a man possessed for Manitoba, ripping 21 kills on a 46% success rate, which defied the Dinos defence all evening. Chris Voth aided the Bisons attack with 10 kills in a supporting role.
While Pischke was dominant for Manitoba, Allen Meek did his best to respond for the Dinos, pounding 19 kills of his own to go along with three blocks.
After a tight result in the opening set which went the Herd's way, the Dinos dominated the second set. A defiant Jovan Jankovic block sealed an equally determined 25-11 decision in an excellent response to the first set loss. Calgary owned a 10-2 advantage in blocks in the second set, while the Bisons also faltered in their attacking, dropping from 27% in the first set to negative seven in the second.
Manitoba would respond in the third and fourth set however, converting on an impressive 46% and 39% of their attacks respectively, wearing down the Dinos with their offence while limiting their defensive errors.
Calgary Head Coach Rod Durrant commented on what he thought was the difference in the match.
“Our lack of execution in the last two sets is what hurt us,” said Durrant. “They did a very good job of attacking against us and we couldn't consistently stop their attack.”
“When we had a chance to stop them and gain momentum, there would be some type of a breakdown on our end. We had way too many unforced errors tonight.”
The Dinos had numerous service errors, as well as nine more attacking errors than the visitors, with many of them coming during Bisons scoring runs. Putting aside the ten blocks from their dominant second set victory, the Dinos notched only four in the other three games, allowing Pischke free reign in his attack - who had 20 of his 21 kills in the Bisons' set victories.
Chris Komishon led the Bisons in blocking with four on the night, while Graham Vigrass added the same amount for Calgary. Chris Hoag led the Dinos with 15 digs to go with 12 kills, while Pischke added 9 digs for Manitoba.
Both teams will have another shot at each other on Saturday in the weekend rematch at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
-UC-
