CALGARY – After dropping the first two sets, the University of Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball team came roaring back for a thrilling 3-2 win over the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday night at Kenyon Court.
Saturday’s win (22-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-10) completes the quarter-final sweep of the Cougars, after winning 3-0 in Friday’s opener.
The seventh-seeded Dinos will now advance to the semifinals, where they will head west to take on No. 3 Trinity Western next weekend.
“I’m extremely proud of how we played this season and this weekend as a whole,” Calgary head coach Rod Durrant said. “I’m just really proud.”
The Dinos and the Cougars hit the ground running Saturday, with high energy coming off both sides; MRU ready to redeem themselves and Calgary looking to carry the momentum from Friday night’s victory.
It was tight between both squads for almost the entirety of the first set, staying within a point or two, but Mount Royal was able to create separation down the stretch to go ahead, 1-0.
Calgary bounced back to start the second and went ahead 6-2, but MRU rallied. Tied at 22-all, the Cougars once again found a way to get it done and made it 2-0 off an ace from Chris Byam.
Calgary was able to create some separation at 17-14. The three-point lead carried to 24-21, where the Cougars started to rally before yet another thunderous kill from Louis Kunstmann officially got the Dinos on the board.
The big momentum swing came midway through the fourth, where Calgary flipped a 13-15 deficit into a 20-16 lead after a kill from Erik Godwin. The Dinos would ride that wave to the fourth-set finish line to send things to a decisive final frame.
With no room for error and nearly 1,000 fans on their feet seemingly the whole fifth set, things started back-and-forth, with the two teams trading the first 16 points. But the Dinos took advantage of a few errors and a kill by Kunstmann gave the visitors a 12-9 edge. A huge block from Zack Durrant and Jackson Meier made it set point and Calgary made no mistake in closing it out for the comeback win.
“It’s been a battle for us,” Calgary player of the game Austin Ellchuk said after the match. “We lost here at the beginning (of the season), but look at us now. We’ve been preparing for this.”
Kunstmann led all players with 21 kills – a new career high for the second-year middle. Kunstmann also hit an impressive .421 for the match and tallied a career-high 11 digs for his first collegiate double-double. Godwin finished the night with 13 kills, while Liam Kuppe and Lincoln Baines each added nine.
Durrant dished out 47 assists to go with 12 digs, while Jackson Meier again was a terror at the net with six kills on just eight swings to go with nine blocks – a new career best.
As a team, the Dinos racked up 17 blocks in Saturday’s win and hit .307 overall.
Three players finished the night in double digits for kills for the Cougars. Max Haronga led the way with 17, while Byam added 14 and Jacob Van Geel had 11.
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