CALGARY – The no.2 Alberta Golden Bears did what they had to do on Friday night, coming back to dash the no.3 Calgary Dinos' hopes for an undefeated season in a 3-2 marathon (19-25, 25-21, 25-22, 18-25, 8-15) .
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In winning the fourth and fifth sets in comeback fashion, the Bears (16-1) returned the favour to the Dinos, where Calgary (16-1) took 25-23 and 15-13 decisions over Alberta in the final two sets of the classic 2010 CIS National semi-final. The Bears dominated in the late-stages of Friday's match, never letting go of big mid-set leads.
The excitement from the crowd was palpable in the Jack Simpson Gymnasium, and the players from both sides were more than happy to treat the fans with entertaining volleyball. The Dinos and Bears traded spectacular kills and dominating blocks all evening long, setting the stage perfectly for the upcoming post-season.
The Bears' victory puts all of the focus on Saturday's rematch, which will now decide the number one playoff seed, and host of the Canada West Final Four. Alberta hosted the conference semi-finals and finals last year in Edmonton, where they eventually defeated the Trinity Western Spartans in the gold-medal match in five sets.
Alberta opened in solid fashion, riding three Spencer Leiske kills and a struggling Calgary attack to win the first set 25-19.
Calgary would answer back in the next two sets, improving their hitting percentage substantially in the second set especially, converting on 50% of their chances. Middle stalwart Graham Vigrass hit seven of his 18 kills in the second set, while assisting on six blocks. Despite the set loss, Alberta would find a way to entertain their few supporters with perhaps the unconventional play of the game.
After two unbelievable sprawling digs, where Bears players ignored their personal well-being to get to, Erik Mattson used a backpedalling, two armed tomahawk-chop swing to get the ball over the net successfully. The Dinos couldn't execute a kill on the ensuing possession, giving up the point, but not the game as they rolled to a 25-21 result.
Calgary would take the third set as well by a score of 25-22, with Vigrass adding five more kills to go along with Curtis James' four. Vigrass would finish with 18 total kills, while Allen Meek would follow with 14.
It would be all Alberta from then-on-out however, as they would stretch a 17-12 fourth set lead into 20-14, and then a resulting 25-18 victory. The Bears then used a 14-5 run in the fifth set to dismantle the Dinos and overcome an early 3-1 Calgary lead, handing them their first match loss of the 2010-11 season, ruining any hopes of going undefeated.
The Bears were led by Jay Olmsted and Spencer Leiske who had 14 and 12 kills respectively, while Erik Mattson had 17 digs.
Calgary head coach Rod Durrant acknowledged shortcomings in Friday's match, but is confident in his team's ability to rebound.
“We didn't have our best night tonight, and specifically our first ball wasn't as good as it needed to be,” said Durrant.
“It comes down to one match, everyone knows that,” continued the coach, who was once an assistant with the Alberta Bears. “It was good preparation for us moving forward, and we will be a better group on the floor tomorrow.”
Calgary and Alberta will face off on Saturday following the women's game, with the result deciding the fate of both teams' playoff schedules. The Dinos will celebrate the accomplishments of five fifth year seniors before the match, which include David Egan, Blake Giles, Curtis James, Pat Lenaour and Aaron Cyr.
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