CALGARY - The Dinos women's volleyball suffered their second loss of the weekend to the Trinity Western University Spartans on Saturday, falling in straight sets at the Jack Simpson gymnasium (25-20, 28-26, 25-20).

The weekend sweep keeps the Spartans in first place in Canada West, with a 15-1 record. The two losses push the Dinos down a spot. They currently sit seventh in the standings with a 6-10 record.

After a spirited effort on Friday night that saw the Dinos almost pull off an upset, the home side were flatter on Saturday.

"We played pretty scared and pretty tentative through the whole night," said head coach Natalie Gurnsey. "There were some good moments, but we played too tentative for playing against such a good team."

Like on Friday, outside hitters Sophie Carpentier and Elizabeth Wendel scored the most kills for the Spartans, with 13 and 11 respectively. Wendel also managed a game-high 11 digs. 

For the Dinos, the main offensive threat came from outside hitter Laura McManes, with nine kills. Defensively, Setter Erika Myhre registered nine digs.

The first set saw both teams making early mistakes, gifting easy points to their opponent. With the score tied at 8, an ace from Myhre gave the Dinos a 9-8 lead.

"There were some glimpses in the first set where we got our offense running, and where we started touching balls on defense," said Gurnsey. "I thought Rachel Solecki did a really good job as a rookie on the right side, getting some blocks and kills."

But as the set went on, some strong blocking pulled the Spartans ahead.

"They adjusted to us really well and had six hands on our middles, which is where our power was last night," said Myhre. "I think we adjusted well with our outsides, but in the middle it was hard to find places."

The Spartans would win the first set 25-20.

The second interval was much more even, with the score tied 10 times throughout the set. Myhre's strong serving and some powerful hitting from McManes gave the Dinos a 16-15 lead going into the technical timeout.

The set could have gone either way, with the score later tied at 18, 19 and 23. But a big Spartans block gave the visitors advantage, and they managed to steal the set 28-26.

The third set started off much more one-sided than the second, with the Spartans going up 8-3. After Gurnsey called a time-out, the Dinos' defence improved. The home side then went on a five-point serving run to make the score 10-8.

But that was about the closest the Dinos would come in the third. The Spartans continued to keep the narrow lead, leading 12-9, 13-11 and 16-13 going into the technical. The Dinos' confidence started to wane, allowing the visitors to take the set 25-20. 

Wendel was the set's stand-out player, earning seven kills in the third interval.

"I think today was a little less about them and a little more about us - Our own confidence to pass and play defense," said Gurnsey.
"I feel we could've come out with more fire. We weren't hitting everything and digging everything we could've," said Myhre. "We learned a lot about what we can do last night, and that how we react to the match affects our play. Yesterday we were excited and today we just weren't at that level."

The Dinos' season continues next weekend with two home matches against the unranked Grant MacEwan University Griffins.

"We've known all along the teams we play that are unranked… are must win weekends for us so we can get into a good playoff position," said Gurnsey. "We've known that from the start, so we're going to be prepared for them, we're going to have a game plan and we're going to get our sweep."