CALGARY – The third-ranked University of Calgary Dinos set a school record for wins in a regular season Saturday night, making quick work of the Mount Royal Cougars with a 3-0 win (25-22, 25-19, 25-16) in the Jack Simpson Gym.

Improving to 17-3 on the campaign, the Dinos passed the team record of 16 regular season wins as they moved that much closer to clinching a home playoff series. 17-win season beats the 16-win total the team had set on three occasions: 16-0 (1988-89), 16-0 (1991-92), 16-2 (2010-11). Heading into their bye next weekend, the Dinos will enjoy at least a five-win cushion over UBC, with the Thunderbirds still to play six matches. A top-four position would clinch a home playoff berth for the Dinos. The loss drops the Cougars to 8-10 on the campaign, one game back of Trinity Western for the seventh and final playoff spot in Canada West.

In a match that took just 75 minutes to play, the Dinos wrapped up the sweep of their crosstown rivals after Friday's 3-1 win on the road – the first sweep for either side since Mount Royal joined Canada West in the 2012-13 season – by forcing the Cougars into errors and holding them under 10 per cent efficiency on the evening.

"Our serve receive was a lot stronger tonight, we passed the ball well, and our hitters were putting the ball away," said Dinos setter Jackson Maris, "which made it really easy for me. We still have room to grow, there are obviously areas we can improve, but I like where we're at. We're on our way to peaking when we need to."

The Dinos were led by an incredible performance from Curtis Stockton, who pounded 18 kills against just one error on 24 attempts for an incredible 70.8 hitting percentage – accounting for more than half the Dinos' kill total. Maris' four kills was next on the Dinos' leaderboard, while Keith West, Sean Martin, and Alex Cook put up three each. The Cougars countered with 10 from Andrew McWilliam, while Tyler Schmidt added nine and Michael Wickstrom picked up five.

 Calgary dominated in all facets of the match, out-blocking the Cougars by a 14-6 margin, earning 33 kills to the visitors' 26, and easily outhitting MRU 26.7 percent to just 7.3. Mount Royal committed 20 attack errors on the night against just 13 for Calgary.

The win sets up a bye weekend for the Dinos before they close the season with the most difficult schedule in the nation: a trip to Edmonton to face undefeated, No. 2 Alberta Feb. 12-13, followed by a home series against No. 4 Manitoba (14-3), the team right below them in the standings.

"These two wins are huge," said Maris. "We're going against two of the top teams in the country next, so these ones were massive to take some of the pressure off."

Mount Royal heads on the road to face Brandon in an important two-game series next weekend in western Manitoba.

-UC-