CALGARY – It comes a week earlier than they had hoped, but for the third straight season the University of Calgary Dinos men's volleyball team hosts a Canada West playoff series this weekend in the Jack Simpson Gym – the first post-season step toward the defence of their 2010 national title.

On deck for the No. 3 Dinos (16-2) are the UBC Thunderbirds (7-11) for a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series that opens Thursday night at 7 p.m. and continues Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. If necessary, Game 3 goes Saturday afternoon with first serve at 4 p.m.

Live webcast: www.goDINOS.com/dinovision
Live stats: www.sidearmstats.com/calgary/mvball

The winner of the series advances to the Canada West Final Four next weekend at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. From there, at least three teams will advance to the national tournament at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. TWU already has a berth secured as the host team, so if the third-seeded Spartans win their quarterfinal series this weekend against sixth-place Thompson Rivers, all four teams at next week's Final Four will have an automatic bid to the CIS championship.

The other quarterfinal series this weekend has Brandon heading to Winnipeg to face the Manitoba Bisons in the 4-vs-5 tilt

For the Dinos and Thunderbirds, it's their second quarterfinal meeting in four seasons – the last coming in 2008 when UBC scored a 2-0 victory at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver over a Dinos team that was making its post-season debut under Rod Durrant. Since that time, Calgary has posted three consecutive second-place finishes in Canada West and, for the third straight season, hosts the seventh place team.

The season series between the Dinos and Thunderbirds went to Calgary back on Jan. 14-15, but it certainly wasn't easy. UBC gave their hosts all they could handle, but Calgary still managed to come out on top with a pair of 3-2 victories. The teams also met once in non-conference action at the TWU tournament in early January, with Calgary winning 3-1.

Here's a look at the two sides in this weekend's playoff clash.

No. 3 CALGARY DINOS
Conference record: 16-2
Conference standings: 2nd
Last week: swept by Alberta (3-2, 3-0)

Calgary's dreams of an undefeated season came crashing back to earth last weekend with a two-game sweep at the hands of the Alberta Golden Bears to close out the regular season.

After dropping just nine sets through the first 16 matches of the season, the Dinos added to that total by two thirds as the Bears came out on top of a hard-fought 3-2 win Friday night before dominating Saturday en route to a straight-sets victory.

Thanks to the short week, however, the Dinos are able to regroup quickly and get back to it Thursday night as they play host to UBC – a Thunderbirds team that was responsible for four of those nine set losses.

The Dinos finished the season at or near the top of most statistical categories in Canada West, leading the conference in hitting percentage (.287), assists (13.03/set), and kills (14.0/set). The key cog in that potent offensive machine was and still is Graham Vigrass, last year's national championship MVP who finished second in hitting percentage and third in total kills individually.

Vigrass and David Egan – who finished fourth in the conference in hitting percentage – had trouble finding consistency last weekend against Alberta, however, and re-establishing that middle attack will be a key consideration for Durrant and the rest of the coaching staff.

Curtis James and Allen Meek can contribute big numbers on the outside along with Chris Hoag – but it has been the middle that has led the way this season. Vigrass scored 311.5 points on the year – more than 100 better than James, the team's second-place finisher.

While smarting from the losses last weekend, the Dinos still have history on their side – last season they lost their final two home games to Brandon, then went on to win their fourth national title.

UBC THUNDERBIRDS
Conference record: 7-11
Conference standings: 7th
Last week: swept by Thompson Rivers (3-2, 3-0)

Like the Dinos, UBC backed into the playoffs a little after losing their last two matches last week at Thompson Rivers in Kamloops to finish 7-11 on the year.

While they lost virtually every match they played against teams that finished ahead of them in the standings, the Thunderbirds were not an easy out for anyone. In addition to taking Calgary to five sets both nights, UBC also had Alberta at match point in the third set before eventually succumbing in five.

Unquestionably, the T-Birds' biggest win of the season was a 3-2 shocker over Brandon Jan. 21 – a feat they will look to repeat as they visit Calgary to take on the heavily-favoured Dinos.

Fourth-year Demijan Savija and rookie Ben Chow, both outside hitters, led the way for the Thunderbirds in their two matches against the Dinos back in January and, unsurprisingly, led UBC in kills over the course of the regular season. Milo Warren and Joe Cordonier were the other two players who racked up more than 100 kills on the year.

Defensively, libero Blair Bann is among the best in conference history – recording his 1,000th career dig earlier this season and setting a new all-time Canada West record.

-UC-