CALGARY – It certainly wasn't pretty, but in a game the No. 6 Calgary Dinos had to win in their quest for home court in the playoffs, they outlasted the No. 7 Alberta Pandas on Friday by a match score of 3-2 (17-25, 26-24, 21-25, 26-24, 15-12).
BOX SCORE
“We just fought,” said Dinos head coach Jesse Knight, whose troops improve to 10-7 on the season, while Alberta drops to the same record.
“We were outplayed in basically every statistical area, and they gave us all sorts of trouble with their serves,” continued Knight. “But we found ways to get key points at key times, and a lot of that had to do with good resilience in the back court.”
Calgary hit with just nine percent efficiency in their attacks, including a negative three percent in the third set, but made up for it by outdigging the Pandas by 17. Alberta didn't do much better at 17 percent, but had more blocks and service aces to their credit.
The Dinos were led by a monster outing from Sarah Moncks, whose full impact can't be solely described in statistics. The third year outside hitter had 13 kills and 19 hard-fought digs, and was a key cog in every Calgary set victory. Melanie Miazga had 14 kills to lead the team, while Sarah Lacny had 17 digs and 38 assists.
Moncks had the ball in her hands for the final six points of the second set, with three of those being set-points as she led a Dinos 6-0 run to cap it at 26-24. Moncks would drill the game winner in the fourth and fifth sets as well, with a terrific dig setting up her heroics in the final set.
Calgary kept their best run until the very end, erasing a 12-8 Pandas advantage with a 7-0 run to finish the game off. Calgary was aided by the Pandas worst hitting percentage of the match in that game, where it sat at just four percent.
Pandas head coach Laurie Eisler did show why she was one of the best coaches in CIS volleyball in the third set, using an unconventional timeout to give her squad big momentum. Down 15-11, Eisler used her first timeout with the technical break just one Calgary point away. However the call proved to be a great one, as the Pandas not only took a 5-0 run into the forced stoppage, but parlayed it into a 14-6 run for the 25-21 victory.
The Pandas were led by Tiffany Proudfoot, who walloped a match-high 15 kills to go with 10 digs, including seven of those kills in the first set, while Kristy Zubick had ten kills and nine digs. Setter Jaki Ellis led the team with 27 assists.
The Canada West playoff picture only got murkier with the result in Calgary, as there is now a four-way tie at 10-7, with the carrot at the end of the stick being third and fourth place – and home-court advantage in the first round - for two teams. The Pandas and Dinos are knotted up with Brandon and Manitoba, who won and lost respectively.
As such, tomorrow's rematch between Calgary and Alberta will be of special importance with the result determining their fate for the following week of postseason play.
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