By Jon Roe
The Dinos won their eighth Husky Dino Cup after defeating the vaunted NCAA div. 1 UCLA Bruins in straight sets Saturday.
A Husky Dino Cup victory and a NCAA opponent lying on the wayside, this means a lot right?
“Not much, really. It’s just the pre-season,” says third-year Dino Graham Vigrass. “It’s good to see where we are and where we have to be. Winning this is not what we’re playing for. But it obviously tells us we’re on the right track.”
Oh.
“It’s a good start, yeah, they’re a very good team as we saw [Friday] in them beating us,” says head coach Rod Durrant, referencing the earlier round-robin match the Bruins took three sets to one. “For us to rebound, the way we were able to in a 24-hour timeframe and to come out and perform against one of the best teams in the NCAA, absolutely, it’s a great thing for this team to build on.”
Now comes the real challenge, I suppose. Conference play and the defending national champion University of Alberta Golden Bears, who Vigrass feels is a tougher opponent than the Bruins and a good measuring stick for this Dinos squad.
The Bears open the season ranked as the top team in the country, the Dinos sit fourth. But even if the Bears are the defending national champions, and the top-ranked team in the conference, the Dinos aren’t going to build the game up to be more than it is.
“It’s just another match,” says Durrant. “Our guys, they know who they are, we’re very familiar with each other’s tendencies, so it’s just a matter of executing and playing well. If we make it anymore than just another volleyball match up there, it becomes that much harder.”