Paul Cartledge, Golden Bears and Pandas Athletics
EDMONTON – Though it's never been easy, the No.3 University of Alberta Golden Bears continue to win against the No.8 University of Calgary Dinos in the 2017-18 season, this time taking Game 1 in four sets (25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 26-24) in a best-of-three quarter-final series, Friday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.
The Canada West regular season kill leader Taryq Sani netted a game-high 18 kills along with a team-high nine digs. Fourth-year Alex McMullin (14), senior middle Arran Chambers (12), and sophomore middle George Hobern (11) all cracked the double-digit barrier in kills as well for a solid team effort, fourth-year setter Luke Brisbane adding an impressive 55 assists.
Senior outside hitter Alex Bader led the Dinos with 12 kills in the loss, fourth-year setter Blain Cranston recording 34 assists.
The scoring-by-committee strategy started in the opening set for the Bears, five different players getting at least two kills, Hobern, Chambers, and McMullin tallying three apiece with Hobern starting a 7-1 run to sway the momentum firmly to the home team and keeping them in the lead.
Five service errors by the Dinos with nary an ace to balance them also didn't help the Calgary squad, even though they kept pace on the stat sheet in terms of kills before Cranston added to the first-set struggles with his errant set hitting the net for a 1-0 Alberta set lead.
The Bears opened the second with an 8-2 run, but the Dinos resiliently stuck around, using a late 4-0 run to knot the set up at 21-21. Fourth-year libero Derek Meeuwisse then made an impressive dig to keep the following play alive, but the rest of the Dino team simply watched the ball fall back down to center court.
Fortunately for Calgary, the gaffe refocused the team, Bader sending two monster kills to the Alberta court while the road team took advantage of Golden Bear errors, Chambers ricocheting one off the net to tie up the set score at one.
The third set swung the momentum back in favour of the home team, the Bears creating a 7-2 run to claim the lead and after the Dinos tied it at 11, Alberta added a short 5-1 run to earn the lead for good.
McMullin expertly deflected a kill off the side of a three-man block to set up set point, Hobern tapping a kill just inside the right sideline for a 2-1 set lead.
The final set featured momentum swings for both teams, the squads unsurprisingly tying up the scoreboard 14 times in the set, the Dinos holding the upper hand on defence with six total blocks and 10 digs but the Bears managed more kills, Hobern notching five while Sani managed eight.
After a Chambers serve hit the net to knot the score one last time at 24-24, another bad Meeuwisse set leading to a difficult Calgary dig fell wide before Hobern and rookie left side Jackson Kennedy combined for a block hitting the Dino floor in tight.
Game two of the best-of-three quarter-final series goes Saturday at 5 p.m. MT.