Volleysaurs fall off the winning train

By Joshua Goard-Baker

Heading into the weekend, the University of Calgary Dinos women’s volleyball team was riding a high, opening the season 6-0 and thoroughly dominating their opponents over the past two weeks. Coming home, the Dinos are now looking to pick up the pieces and push the weekend’s performance behind them, having received the same sort of domination they were doling out early in the season.

“We were really flat at a number of key positions,” said coach Kevin Boyles. “We’re fighting through a time where, individually, some of our players are lacking the confidence that they need to bring more poise and swagger to the court.”

Top-ranked Manitoba seemed to be firing on all cylinders, sweeping the Dinos in both Friday’s and Saturday’s matches, 25-17, 25-17, 25-19 and 25-22, 25-22, 25-13, respectively. The match was a one-sided affair, but Boyles looked to the positives in preparation for next week’s faceoff against Alberta.

“There weren’t a lot of bright spots to this weekend’s matches, but we continue to get great contributions from our rookies,” said Boyles, continuing the praise for his first-year players. “Laura Wilson was good on Fri. night and led us in kills with 11, while Melanie Miazga got her first start of the season on Sat. and went off for nine kills and just two errors over the first two sets.”

Despite the losses over the weekend, Boyles is still confident in the team’s abilities. He views the weekend as an example of Manitoba at its best, while the Dinos have yet to show their true potential.

“To beat Manitoba, we need to be at our best and we need to bring full confidence and intensity to the floor,” he said. “When we’re firing with every position on the floor, we can cause them a lot of problems and I don’t believe that they have a higher level to step up to.”

It appears the most important thing for the Dinos would be to put the weekend set behind them and focus on what could potentially be the most important game of the year come Fri. and Sat., with rival Alberta making the trek down Highway Two. Alberta is ranked third in CIS while Calgary stands just behind at fourth and the match could determine home court advantage come playoff time.

“At 8-2, we would be in a good position going into the second half, but another pair of losses could potentially jeopardize any opportunity that we have to be at home in the playoffs,” said Boyles. “We know that we’re capable of competing with any team in the country and we just need to regroup and make sure that the U of A has to deal with the very best that we have to offer.”

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