BOX SCORE CALGARY - The Dinos stopped the Trinity Western Spartans at the gates of the Jack Simpson Gym in the first game of their explosive Canada West quarterfinal. Winning the contest 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 15-25, 25-19), the Dinos will look to keep the momentum going tomorrow as they continue the series.
From the first serve, the game was high intensity and evenly matched as both teams elevated for strong kills and aces. However, the Dinos were able to consistently subdue the Spartans for the first two sets and force them to take timeouts in order to regroup and claw back into the game.
In the third set, errors piled on for the Dinos and the Spartans capitalized with key kills to win that set 15-25. The Dinos came back on track in a close fourth set. While there were moments where it seemed that the Spartans would win two sets in a row, the Dinos were able to edge out the competition to get the strong win.
Calgary won the kills contest 48-38, the assist contest 44-33, and the dig contest 53-44. Curtis Stockton and Keith West combined for 25 kills to lead the Dinos. The top scorer for the Spartans was Blake Scheerhoorn. Head coach Rod Durrant was pleased with his team's performance. He said "I think our team had great energy and great intensity tonight. They showed the team that they are [being] third place in our league. We stayed really consistent the first two sets. We had a bit of a drop off in the third set. Our services broke down and we knew that but we were able to change that in the fourth" As for continuing on in the series against the Spartans and for the rest of the playoffs, Durrant was pragmatic. "We will just worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow's a big match. [They are] a very good team and they are going to be a little bit better, we have to be a little bit better," he said. "Cliche as it is: one match at a time"
The Dinos and the Spartans will rematch tomorrow in the Jack Simpson Gym at 6 PM.
