LANGLEY, B.C. – Their dreams of back-to-back national titles having been dashed the previous evening, the University of Calgary Dinos still had plenty to play for in Sunday's CIS men's volleyball bronze medal match.

They played for pride, for themselves, for their teammates, and for their conference, and the Canada West champions rewarded all of the above with a 3-2 victory over the Laval Rouge et Or to capture their second straight national medal Sunday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre (20-25, 25-22, 19-25, 27-25, 18-16).

BOX SCORE

It marks the third time in program history that the Dinos have medaled in consecutive national tournaments after a silver-gold tandem in 1992 and 1993 and a bronze-gold double in 1988 and 1989. It is the third bronze medal in program history (2001, 1988) and the eighth podium finish overall for Calgary in 18 appearances at the national tournament.

And it certainly wasn't easy. The Dinos were forced to battle not only fatigue from their epic semi-final Saturday night against host Trinity Western but against a game Rouge et Or squad which had lost its first match of the season in the early semi-final. Twice Calgary fought back from one-set deficits in the match and then found a way to wrap it up in the fifth.

“Fantastic effort by the entire group,” said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant, who has three straight second-place league finishes, a conference title, a CIS bronze medal, and a national championship to show for his five years leading the program. “It wasn't easy, Laval is a great team, but the character the players and this team have shown in the last two years is outstanding. To come back as defending national champions, to start the season 16-0, to win Canada West, to come here and battle to get bronze…we hung in there, we kept believing. A great win for our team and the guys that are graduating from our program. I'm very proud of all of them.”

While Durrant is proud, his colleagues across the conference are relieved. For the ninth time in 10 seasons, Canada West will sweep the medals at the national championship, guaranteeing the strongest conference in the nation four berths to the 2012 CIS tournament in Kingston, Ont. at Queen's University.

CIS player of the year Graham Vigrass wrapped up a sensational season with a fantastic weekend at the national championship, racking up 21 kills on 39 attempts with just one error in the match and wrapping up a certain tournament all-star award to add to his trophy case.

“Graham had a great weekend,” said Durrant. “He doesn't say much, he leads by example, but when he is on his game he is one of the best in the country, and he proved it this weekend. I'm very happy for him and I know he will continue to play the game and represent this country.”

Levi Nutma played most of the match for Calgary and put up 13 big kills, while David Egan, one of the team's fifth-year seniors, chipped in with 11 in his final CIS volleyball match.

“All you can really ask for is to get a chance to play for a medal, then get a win at the end of your career,” said Egan, who spent his final three seasons as team captain. “A lot of guys don't get that opportunity, and we made the best of it. We just worked hard and kept trying to play our game. We were kind of fighting it the whole night, but we managed to make a few plays at the end of the game and that was enough to get the win.”

Egan, left side Curtis James, middle Pat Lenaour, right side Aaron Cyr, and libero Blake Giles wrapped up their CIS careers in Sunday's match.

With the Quebec champs up 2-1 heading into the fourth set, Calgary needed a response and promptly got one, flying out to an 8-3 lead at the first break. They led by as many as five points at 17-12, but Laval slowly closed the gap and tied it at 22. With Calgary up 24-23, setter Jay Blankenau missed a serve – a sign of things to come – and a Nutma attack error gave match point to the Rouge et Or. Calgary got a break with a service error by Laval, and Vigrass combined with Chris Hoag to stuff Frederic Desbiens on set point to extend affairs to a fifth frame.

The final set was tight from the get-go, with Calgary leading 8-6 at the switch. Laval took a 10-9 lead, and the teams exchanged points from there. Tied at 12, Karl De Grandpre's serve into the net followed by another Desbiens attack error gave the Dinos match point at 14-12 – but Allen Meek's serve went wide right and Desbiens tied it up at 14 with one of his match-high 22 kills on the day. Again Calgary staved off elimination when Egan and Blankenau stuffed Frederic Mondou at the net, and back-to-back kills by Meek and Nutma sealed the bronze medal for Calgary.

De Grandpre had 13 kills on the night for Laval while Mondou added a dozen. It was a virtual dead head statistically as on the scoreboard, with the Dinos holding a slight edge in most categories.

Calgary finishes the season with an overall record of 30-10, the program's first conference title since 1997, and the national MVP in Vigrass. Following two years out east – Queen's (2012) and Laval (2013), the CIS men's volleyball championship comes back west when the Dinos host the event in the Jack Simpson Gym Feb. 28-March 2, 2014.

-UC-