CALGARY – The Dinos roared back into action to begin the the second half of their season against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. In a neck and neck competition, the Dinos emerged victorious with a 3-1 win (25-20, 26-28, 25-23, 25-23) in the Jack Simpson Gym. The Dinos' record improves to 4-7 while the WolfPack falls to 1-10.
Both teams were evenly matched as they went back and forth throughout the game with high intensity. After losing the first set by 5 points, the WolfPack kept it close and were determined to take the game into a 5th set. The Dinos fought back, however, and secured key kills with a sense of urgency to win the game.
Outside hitter Curtis Stockton proved his efficiency yet again as he led the Dinos with 23 kills and 9 assists. Blain Cranston proved to set up his teammates for success with 35 assists on the board. Other standouts for the night were Alex Bader, Alex Cook, and Derek Meeuwisse. Overall, the Dinos had 58 kills, 51 assists, 39 digs, and 10 blocks to end the night.
Curtis Stockton said a key factor for his squad tonight was a greater team effort. "We had a lot of new guys starting that haven't necessarily started for us in the past...everyone contributed one or two points each and everyone just had their own attitude. It was a much better feeling than what it had been when we lost some games" he said.
Stockton, a player who is in the top 5 of multiple individual statistical categories in Canada West including kills (153) and service aces per set (0.46), highlighted some of the areas of his game that he wants to work on for the rest of the season. He said "My biggest [goal] right now is defense. I want to get as many digs as I can because that's something that will make somebody else look better. So if I can focus on other things like serving them the ball and getting them to pass the ball off the net and more defense that's where I'm going to contribute the most."
The Dinos will rematch the WolfPack tomorrow night at the Jack Simpson Gym.
