WINNIPEG – Zack Durrant dished out 36 assists to go with a game-high 10 digs to help lead the University of Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball team to a convincing 3-1 road win over the University of Manitoba Thursday night from Investors Group Athletic Centre.
Calgary’s top trio of Erik Godwin, Louis Kunstmann and Jackson Meier all finished with double-digit kills on the night, as the Dinos improve to 4-1 on the year. They jumped out to a strong start and never looked back in the win, 25-17, 18-25, 25-21, 25-15.
Meanwhile, the Bisons fall to 2-3 after the loss.
Manitoba was led by fifth-year Ben Carleton, who had a team-high 11 kills. Spencer Grahame adding eight.
Calgary came out of the gates strong, hitting .350 in the opening set to quickly set the tone. They never trailed in the opener, using a 4-1 run to create some separation at 16-11 before kills from Tyler Funk and Ethan Czepuryk closed things out in convincing fashion.
The Bisons were able to turn the tables in the second and even things up. Manitoba hit .389 in the second and limited Calgary to just .037 to get the home crowd involved and make this one a best-of-three finish.
But it was all Calgary from there on out.
A kill by Meier early in the third capped a Dinos run and forced a Manitoba timeout. The Bisons made a nice run late to keep things close, but Calgary closed things out with a thunderous kill by Meier to go ahead, 2-1.
After conceding the first three points in the fourth, it was much of the same for the Dinos. A 7-1 run made it 12-7, before a 5-1 run extended the lead to 20-12. It was smooth sailing from there as Meier once again hammered one home to finish this one off.
Calgary finished the night with 11 service aces, led by three apiece from Funk and Czepuryk.
Meier finished the night hitting an incredible .643 with 10 kills on just 14 swings to go with four blocks. Kunstmann also stuffed the stat sheet with his 11 kills on .381 hitting to go with a team-high six blocks and five digs.
The two teams are right back at it Friday at 6 p.m. MT to wrap up the weekend series.