BOX SCORE

EDMONTON - In a Battle of Alberta that featured two nationally-ranked opponents, the No.4 Alberta Golden Bears clinched a playoff spot with a 3-1 win (25-18, 20-25, 25-17, 25-22) over the No.7 Calgary Dinos Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.

Third-year left side Jay Olmstead led all players with 18 kills and team leader Mitch Irvine added 11. Setter Jarron Mueller notched 35 assists in the victory for the 11-4 Bears who sit third in the conference standings.

Calgary's offence was led by 7'1" middle Ivan Kartev, netting 13 kills, and former CIS Player of the Year Graham Vigrass, tallying 33 assists as he was pressed into action as the ball-chucker for the now 9-6 Dinos, who are still looking to lock up a post-season berth and lead fifth-place Brandon (9-7) by just a half-game.

The opening set began without much fanfare, the visitors starting with a 6-2 lead before errors from the service line and on the attack gave the Bears an 8-1 run and, despite a quick trio of kills by third-year left side Will Young, the Dinos couldn't fully erase the deficit, giving Alberta the 1-0 set lead.

Yet in the second set, it was the Bears having difficulty on the serve, committing seven errors from the back end while the Dinos scored five aces, four of them fuelling an 11-1 run midway through the set and turned all the momentum to Calgary's favour.

It was then Olmstead's turn to take control in the third set, however, driving home seven kills on nine attacks while Alberta, as a team, fired with a phenomenal 50% attack rating. Add to that a tough Chris Hoag serve that Golden Bear libero EriK Mattson dug under and returned with just as much force, which Hoag couldn't handle, and the shift back to home-field advantage was complete.

Hailing from Calais, France, the towering Kartev did his part in the final set to take the match the full distance, but his seven kills could not combat the Olmstead-Irvine duo that combined for eight, including the final strike by Olmstead that found the back left corner and vaulted the Golden Bears into the playoffs.

The two provincial rivals will face off in the second game of the weekend series tomorrow night at 6 p.m. MT.

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