EDMONTON – After a four-week stretch that saw two of their best players fall to injury, in the end the obstacle was too great to overcome for the University of Calgary Dinos, who fell in straight sets (25-21, 25-15, 25-21) to the Ryerson Rams in the U SPORTS national quarter-final Friday night.
The defending champion Rams move on to take on the host Alberta Pandas in semifinal action Saturday night, while the Dinos move to the consolation side of the tournament and will face Ontario champion Toronto Saturday at 2:30 p.m. MT at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
Missing first team All-Canadian outside hitter
Kate Pexman along with
Hannah Tanasichuk – the Dinos' two most prolific hitters who had a combined 586 kills over the regular season – the makeshift Dinos lineup showed moments of promise but was unable to string it together consistently.
"We knew that we were in tough losing two very significant starters, but I feel like we had our opportunities to win sets tonight," said a disappointed Dinos Head Coach
Natalie Gurnsey. "It's so hard to learn how to have confidence at national championships, especially when there are people who haven't been there before. It's not something you can force, or make people have, but to me that was the missing link tonight.
"In almost every [statistical] category, the margin was very small. That's the edge between winning and losing – what are you mentally doing under pressure, and can you execute repeatedly? We just couldn't do that tonight."
The Dinos started all three sets from behind as the Rams took early leads. In the first and third Calgary battled in the late stages to get the score closer, but in the end the Rams were able to keep the Dinos at arm's length to secure the win.
Theanna Vernon and Cailin Wark had 12 kills apiece to lead the Rams. For the Dinos,
Beth Vinnell and
Kenzie Vaandering were the leaders, each picking up 10 kills, with libero
Kennedy Snape picking up 14 digs.
Calgary, which will host the 2020 U SPORTS championship in the Jack Simpson Gym a year from now, turns its attention to the consolation side of the draw as they get set to face another team from Toronto in the Varsity Blues Saturday.
"I feel like in a lot of ways, this is a cultural opportunity for us," said Gurnsey. "[Pexman and Tanasichuk] are out next year and yes we have recruits coming in, but as a program can our culture take pride in what we bring to the floor, or are we going to walk out of here knowing we actually expended all of our energy trying to win this consolation semi, so we can be proud of what we brought to the table."
USPORTS.live will have streaming coverage of the Dinos' match against Toronto beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
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