CALGARY – The No. 4 University of Calgary Dinos completed the sweep of the No. 10 Trinity Western Spartans when they defeated them 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-22) on Saturday night at Jack Simpson Gym.
The win for the Dinos improves their record to 13-3 on the season, while the Spartans drop to a .500 record of 8-8.
"Trinity Western is a very good team and we knew that. To get to wins at home against them, we're very pleased," said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant.
For Calgary, Keith West led the way with a game-high 23 kills. Outside hitter Curtis Stockton also contributed on offence added 17 kills of his own. Connor Frehlich also hit double digits for the Dinos with 14 kills. Setter Jackson Maris recorded a game-high 46 assists and added 13 digs. Libero Derek Meeuwisse led all passers with 15 digs.
Blake Scheerhorn and Ryan Sclater recorded 17 kills each for the Spartans and libero Tyler Koslowsky added 12 digs.
"We had a lot of standouts tonight that helped us. Keith played very well for us, our setter Jackson did a great job. All of our outside guys did great and same with Derek our libero. We passed better today so we were in system way more, so from a team perspective we played a much from rounded game tonight."
In the opening set, the first significant lead came from the Dinos when they were up 11-8. It didn't last long though as the Spartans came right back to tie the set up at 11. Similar to last night's game between the two teams, the technical timeout was separated by just one point. With Trinity Western holding down a two point lead later in the set, it was a big block in the middle that solidified the win for the Spartans at 25-22. Sclater led the way in kills with six after the first set.
The second set saw a couple of Spartans' errors give the Dinos an early lead, but once again, the visiting team found a way to come back, tying the set up at 10. The Dinos were forced to call a timeout when Trinity Western went on a 4-0 run after a block on West. After the timeout, the Dinos rebounded to go up 16-12 at the technical thanks to some big hits from Stockton. Two more kills from the Aussie allowed the Dinos to earn a six-point lead. Despite Trinity Western closing the gap to three, the Dinos went on to win it 25-21. Stockton recorded 10 kills in the set.
The tight match continued as neither team saw more than a two point lead until after the technical. With the Spartans up 18-15, it was West who added two kills and a block to bring the Dinos back to 18 all. Tied all the way up until 24, the Dinos strung together two points to take the set 26-24 and go up 2-1 in the match.
In the fourth and final set, the Dinos built up one of their biggest leads of the entire match, going up 16-11 at the technical. Despite that lead, they slowly let the Spartans work their way back into the match and the visitors finally got within one at 21-20. That was as close as they would get though, as the Dinos held off the Spartan attack to win the match in four at 25-22.
The Spartans remain on the road with a trip to play the Manitoba Bisons next weekend, while the Dinos continue their homestand with a doubleheader against the MacEwan Griffins.
