Kelowna, BC - The University of Calgary Dinos will begin 2019 in the win column after notching a straight-sets decision over the UBCO Heat on Friday night.
In both teams' first action of the new year, it was Calgary who came out firing on all cylinders, winning the opening set 25-11. The second and third sets followed similar storylines, as the two teams would fight back and forth until it was the Dinos pulling away at the end of both frames.
With the win, Calgary moves to 4-7 on the Canada West season while the Heat drop to 0-13.
In his first Canada West match ever at Libero, Devon Cote would finish with a team-high 12 digs for the Heat while Eli Risso took over the setting duties and finished with 19 assists.
It was a balanced attack for the Dinos on the night as
Tim Taylor,
Hamish Hazelden,
Liam Laidlaw and
Mitchell Higgin all finished with at least seven kills.
Setter
Blain Cranston did a great job spreading the ball around throughout, and would finish with 31 assists in the three set match.
Calgary would finish the night with more kills (36-31), a better attack percentage (.277 - .133) and more digs (43-29) then the Heat. UBCO would also commit 11 service errors compared to just two for the visitors.
The Dinos started off like a team possessed in the opening frame, as they led 16-7 at the media timeout in the set and would continue to pull away from the Heat. It was the visitors most efficient set of the night, finishing with 13 kills on 20 attacks, compared to just four kills on 25 attacks for UBCO in the frame.
It was a much tighter second set in the Furnace, as the home team gained the lead at 10-9 early on and the two teams couldn't gain separate from each other until the very end. Calgary led 19-18 before they finished strong, scoring six of the next eight points to take the two set lead.
The third would be nearly a mirror-image of the second frame, with both teams making runs but neither team able to take real control of the set. A big service ace from Denham O'Reilly tied the set up at 21 all, but once again it was the Dinos who found the finishing touch by scoring four of the next five points to capture the three set victory.
These two teams will meet again tomorrow night in the UBC Okanagan gym with first serve set for 7 p.m. PST.
