CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos men's volleyball team wrapped up its first home match of 2020 with a dominant win over the third-ranked Brandon Bobcats in straight sets (25-22, 25-22, 25-11) Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.
Calgary improved to 7-6 on the season while dropping Brandon to 11-4.
The Dinos hit the ground running and went up 5-0 to start to open the first set, guided by four attack errors from the Bobcats. With the Dinos energy running high the Bobcats battled back thanks to the duo of Elliott Viles and Reece Dixon. After trading points throughout the set it was
Liam Laidlaw who sealed the deal for the Dinos in the first finishing the set 25-22.
The second set was very much the same story with the Dinos going up early, however this time the Bobcats surged back to gain an 11-7 lead. With the Bobcats hungry after falling in the first set, the Dinos leaned on
Mac McNicol and
Hamish Hazelden to put away the second set 25-22.
While the first two sets were essentially the same story, the third was completely different as the Dinos put on a masterclass in a 25-11 win. The Dinos hit 85 per cent in the frame.
"We got away and the team trained in California for six days and we were very pleased with their commitment, their focus, and our training was really good," said Dinos Head Coach
Rod Durrant. "We were able to transfer that into the way we played tonight."
The Dinos were led by fourth year
Hamish Hazelden and fifth year
Mac McNicol, who finished with 17 and 14 kills, respectively. Playing without stars Seth Friesen and Robin Baghdady, the Bobcats were led by senior Elliott Viles, who capped off the night with 11 kills.
The teams will be back in action Saturday evening at Jack Simpson Gymnasium in the rematch, with first serve set for 5:30 p.m. MT, live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.
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