CALGARY – In a fresh season of Canada West volleyball, the University of Calgary Dinos dropped their home opener to the visiting University of Saskatchewan Huskies in an tough four-set loss (25-20, 17-25, 16-25, 19-25) Friday evening in the Jack Simpson Gym.
In their first loss to the Huskies since 2015, the Dinos were unable to pin down their momentum and let the young Huskies squad take control of the match for the final three sets. Emily Koshinsky was the leader of the scoreboard with 18 kills and five blocks, followed by her teammate Mandi Fraser with 15 kills and four blocks. From Calgary,
Beth Vinnell led the way with 13 kills, three blocks and three aces.
The Dinos came out swinging in the first set, putting up an impressive .406 hitting percentage. Vinnell used sharp angles to her advantage, coming away with a pair of aces and four kills.
Adriel Goodman made quick work of the Huskies' defense, putting up four kills from the right side. The Dinos took over the momentum at 21-20 and hammered out five straight points to end the set 25-20.
Things heated up considerably for the Huskies after the first set, as their second set win established a key momentum swing against the Dinos squad ranked fifth in the preseason Canada West coaches poll. Huskies middle Mandi Fraser was instrumental on the net, reading the Dinos' offence smoothly and putting up four huge blocks. Veteran libero
Kennedy Snape fought back and owned the floor, garnering the match-high 17 digs but was not enough to turn things around.
In the fourth set, rookie
Trinity Solecki showed huge potential for Calgary as she got comfortable locating line shots, providing a necessary source of energy for the Dinos squad tonight. The Dinos fought back in the fourth set after an ace from Vinnell but the deficit was too large to overcome.
"We came out really strong and adjusted to what we needed to with Sask, but I feel that Sask made some pretty big blocking and defensive adjustments against us and we were unable to find a way to respond," said Dinos head coach
Natalie Gurnsey. "Our (lack of adjustment) showed in our offense…we were unable to generate anything to get past their blocks."
The Dinos will look to clean things up Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Jack Simpson Gym when the Dinos and the Huskies will battle it out again.
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