Oh-so-close: Dinos drop five-setter to open postseason

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – A marathon opener to the Canada West playoffs fell just outside the University of Calgary Dinos’ reach Thursday night as they dropped a heartbreaking five-setter to the Brandon Bobcats at the UFV Athletic Centre (20-25, 28-26, 25-22, 19-25, 18-20).

The loss drops the Dinos to 0-1 in their four-team playoff pool, with matches remaining against Trinity Western (Friday) and Fraser Valley (Saturday).

The Dinos came with tenacity and a never-say-die attitude Thursday, battling back from multiple deficits to pull even. In the fifth and deciding set, they played from behind almost from the get-go, but chipped away at Brandon’s lead and managed to stay even as the score crept higher and higher. Eventually, the Bobcats managed to squeak out the 20-18 win to improve to 1-0 in the postseason.

Calgary was led by a solid performance by fifth-year outside Kenzie Vaandering, who led the way with 19 kills for the Dinos. Carolyn Berze made a significant contribution as well with a dozen kills, while Regan Ingram added 10.

“Of course we’d rather have the win, but we are pretty excited about finding a next level for our group, and a sustained battle,” said Dinos head coach Christine Biggs. “We’ve shown throughout the regular season against the same opponents over and over that we can compete and play at a high level, but we haven’t sustained it. After a slow start and some errors, we were willing to put it on the line and continue to battle and continue to believe.

“I’m super proud of the group. As we cycled through some of our group, everybody popped up and did great things at different times.”
The Dinos head to Langley Friday night to take on the top-seeded Trinity Western Spartans. First serve is set for 7:45 p.m. MT at the Langley Events Centre, live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.

The University of Calgary is proud to host the 2022 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship March 25-27 in the Jack Simpson Gym.

-UC-