With playoffs less than a month away, the men’s volleyball team hit the court twice at home to take on the number-one team in the country and Calgary’s provincial rivals, the University of Alberta Golden Bears Jan. 18 and 19. Though the Bears delivered two straight losses to the Dinos, the home team took the defeats in stride.
Friday night’s match saw the Dinos come on strong at the start of the first set, peaking at a 10-6 lead over the Bears. The momentum soon shifted in the Bears’ favour as they took control of the match and won the set 25-23. The Bears continued to dominate the game, taking the final two sets at 25-19 and 25-16 respectively, though not without some fierce effort from the Calgary side. Notably, Omar Langford of the Dinos registered 14 kill shots throughout the match, the highest of any player either side of the net.
Ciaran McGovern, a first-year setter for the Dinos, noted the match’s shift in momentum was largely due to the Bears’ intensifying their game and the Dinos being unable to answer with their own infusion of energy.
“I think that we didn’t bring enough emotion to stay with them like we did in the first set,” he said. “We have to keep fighting hard on defence because, when we get the defensive plays going, it really brings up our team.”
Head coach Rod Durrant was marked with disappointment following the match, but took the loss as a lesson, rather than a setback.
“They’re a good team,” Durrant said of the Bears. “They’re the best team going and that’s a great evaluation for us as a team upcoming. We’ll learn from it and we’ll move on for tomorrow.”
Saturday’s match, however, again ended in favour of the Bears, as they dominated the Dinos in three straight sets. The set scores were 25-15, 25-18, 25-19, reflecting the Bears’ consistent play. Though the Dinos had a slight lead to start off the second set, Alberta proved too formidable, as the Dinos found their best efforts repeatedly trounced. The Bears’ Joel Schmuland delivered 15 kill shots alone.
Though the weekend’s matches had proven frustrating for the Dinos, Coach Durrant remained optimistic following Sat. night’s match.
“We proved that if we are prepared we can compete at certain times with the best teams in the country,” he said.
Citing the team’s service game and service receiving as areas in need of improvement, Durrant also acknowledged that what the team really needed in order to compete with teams boasting a history of competing in national finals–the Bears included–is experience.
“We’re young and inexperienced and still make inexperienced mistakes,” he said. “You get frustrated because you’re doing good things. We would do something good, then they’d do something better. If we can come back with more patience when we play other teams, we can frustrate them by doing good things on our side of the net.”