CALGARY – There's a whole new confidence surrounding the 2013-14 Dinos women's volleyball team.

Two days after dropping their first home match of the season 3-1 to their provincial rivals the Alberta Pandas, the Dinos wrapped up the 2013 Dino Cup tournament with a hard-fought five-set victory over the Pandas Saturday afternoon in the Jack Simpson Gym (18-25, 25-19, 17-25, 25-21, 15-9).

In a match where neither side played particularly well statistically and the teams combined to hit at a less than six per cent efficiency, the Dinos found a way to make enough plays to win, coming from a 2-1 set deficit to force a fifth, which they took 15-9.

For third-year Dinos head coach Natalie Gurnsey,

"We went into today talking a lot about the journey this team is on and that we need to focus on the culture we're creating on the court rather than wins and losses," said Gurnsey. "Thursday I felt that we were wrapped up in whether we would win or lose, and this team is too young to judge itself that way right now. We battled and brought a winning environment out there – and thankfully, that transferred into a winning result.

"If we can do that consistently, night after night, we're going to have success this season."

Indicative of the play in this game is the stat line of rookie outside hitter Laura McManes, who led the Dinos with 12 kills on the night. However, she also committed 15 hitting errors, seeing nearly 10 more sets than her next-closest teammate with 55.

Errors plagued the Pandas, too, especially late. With the Dinos trailing 9-8 in the fifth set, Calgary closed it out on a 7-0 run – aided by five errors by Alberta, only one of which was a Calgary block.

The Calgary offence was spread out effectively, with six players registering at least two kills. Wolley followed up McManes' dozen with nine of her own, while Janna Ogle put down eight and Emma Pedersen added seven.

Alberta was led by Karly Janssen's 17-kill effort, while Meg Cassault added 10. Both teams ended up with 94 total digs, with Alberta libero Jessie Niles leading the way with 26. Ogle was Calgary's top defensive player with 19 digs on the night, while Pedersen had a hand in eight of the Dinos' 10 blocks in the contest.

The Pandas out-blocked the Dinos by a 13-10 margin – but Calgary's best hitting performance came in the fifth and deciding set at 16.7 per cent, and that was enough to win the match.

The Dinos open conference play with a Crowchild Classic home-and-home series against the Mount Royal Cougars next weekend. Action gets underway at MRU's Kenyon Court Friday night before returning to the Jack for their home opener Saturday, with first serve at 5 p.m.

-UC-