LANGLEY, B.C. – The University of Calgary Dinos women’s volleyball team battled the top-ranked Trinity Western Spartans tightly before coming up short in a 3-1 loss from the Langley Events Centre Saturday night.
After a slow start, the Dinos (3-3) responded nicely and pushed the Spartans (6-0) on their home floor before falling, 14-25, 25-21, 23-25, 18-25.
Evelyn Kath orchestrated the offence nicely, dishing out 29 assists off the bench.
Carolyn Berze also had a nice night for the Dinos, leading the team with 15 digs to go with six kills, two blocks and an ace.
Savannah Purdy finished with a game-high 18 kills to lead the way for the Spartans in the win.
After a rough first set to start the night, Calgary responded very strongly in the second. An ace by Olsen finished a short 4-0 spurt to start to inject confidence in the Dinos with an early 7-5 edge. Shortly after, Boag started another Dinos run with a kill and ended it with an ace to make it 11-7. The Spartans tried to make the necessary adjustments, but a clever play by Kath gave her a kill and made it 20-17, Calgary late. Berze added two of her kills and an ace, followed by a pair of kills from Sheridan to close things out and level the match up.
In a very back-and-forth third set, the Dinos found themselves down just one at 24-23. But, in a set that could have gone either way, Purdy was able to just find the floor to give TWU the 2-1 advantage.
A 6-0 run midway through the fourth proved to be the difference for the Spartans, giving them a 16-9 lead. Calgary would battle and cut the deficit to 21-17, but couldn’t get any closer in dropping the weekend series.
The Dinos now have a weekend to rest before returning to the court Nov. 18-19 in Edmonton for a weekend series at MacEwan.