CALGARY – University of Calgary Dinos outside hitter Louis Kunstmann fired up the crowd with a match high 18 kills in the men’s volleyball season opening win against the University of Manitoba Bisons, bringing the Dinos back from a 0-2 deficit to complete a reverse sweep, 3-2, Friday night inside the Jack Simpson Gym.
It was a tight game throughout every set in front of the passionate opening night crowd.
In the opener, it was point-for-point before the Bisons took the stride ahead of the Dinos, extending themselves to a consistent three-point lead at 14-11, until the final stretch where they finalized the set at 25-18.
Although the Bisons gained the first point in the second set, the Dinos quickly took a four-point lead early on, with a few kills and a service ace from Kunstmann. The Bisons were not to be deterred however, quickly evening up the score at 13-13. With strong kills and blocks by both teams, the score remained fairly even, ending with the Bison taking the set win with 25-22.
“We were all pretty excited to put up a fight, it just felt nervous with the first two sets.” Kunstmann said regarding the 0-2 set deficit.
“We had our backs against the wall, it felt like we had nothing to lose. We just started trying to enjoy it and fight for every point. With the crowd going it makes it a lot easier to move on and focus on the next point.”
And that’s exactly what the Dinos did when they opened the third set on a strong note. In similar fashion, the set was even in strengths and weaknesses, before the Dinos took the end stride with an ace serve from Tyler Funk that split the Bisons defense to give Calgary a 22-18 lead. Ending with the only major lead in the third, the Dinos bounced back, opening the floor to a fourth set with a 25-19 score.
Fighting to end the match, the Bisons put up an early 4-1 lead, and remained steadily ahead before the Dinos caught up tying the match at 8-8, introducing the familiar back-and-forth style of play that was present in the first three sets. Luke Nodwell, with a match-high six blocks, executed an incredible block with massive hang-time to put the Dinos up 19-16. This evidently shut down the Bisons, as that led to the Dinos taking the fourth set 25-20 and tying the match.
The fifth set proved to be where the Dinos took their two-set win momentum and applied it to the final set. The Bisons led with two early points, but the Dinos continued to play point by point. Like before, this proved effective as they took the lead in the first half, sitting at 8-5. Falling back into the comfortable back and forth, the Bisons caught up, tying the set at 13-13, before Kunstmann hammered one home, leading to another Jackson Meier thunderous kill to cap the set and finish off the reverse sweep.
“I’m really happy with their drive, motivation, and patience throughout the match, and how they figured out how to play point by point,” Dinos first-year head coach Graham Vigrass said following the first win of his career. “It was them thinking about the game and being clear about tactics and certain things at each point which really helped us focus and win.”
“We’re back again tomorrow. We have stuff to learn. There’s a lot of things that we could do better in certain aspects of the game, but that’s what tomorrow is for, to try to polish off a few of those things.”
Both teams will be back at Jack Simpson Gym Saturday at 4 p.m. for the rematch to close out their season-opening weekend.