CALGARY - The Calgary Dinos defeated the Winnipeg Wesmen in dramatic fashion as they took the game 3-1 on January 16th at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium. The Dinos improve their record to 7-12 while the Wesmen take a rare loss, dropping to 12-5 on the season.
Braden O'Toole had a monstrous game, leading the Dinos with 14 kills and 9 digs. Keith West and Sean Tuff put up nine kills respectively for the Dinos.
Wesmen hitter Taylor Howe had a game high of 15 kills and setter Joshua McKay had a game high of 41 assists, along with six digs and one kill.
The Dinos came out to a strong start in the first set, taking a 16-11 lead into the technical timeout. The Wesmen came back to pull within two, but a big kill from West followed by a serving ace by Jackson Maris put the Dinos back into a comfortable lead. They carried this lead to the end of the set, as they took the first set by a score of 25-19.
Calgary continued their momentum into the second set, as a four point serving run by West gave them an early 6-2 lead. They built on this lead to take a commanding 10 point advantage at 17-7. The Wesmen rallied back to make it 22-19, but that is as close as they would get as the Dinos took another 25-19 win to put them ahead 2-0.
The third set was all Winnipeg from the very beginning when they scored five unanswered points to start the set. The Dinos were unable to recover from this deficit, as the Wesmen pulled within one, taking the third set 25-16.
The fourth set began very evenly as the two teams exchanged points, but things went downhill quickly for the Wesmen when Calgary started pulling away. Down by six points following the technical timeout, Winnipeg desperately battled to keep the game within reach, and succeeded in doing so as the came within four points at 20-16.
When a crucial point was awarded to the Dinos on a net violation and another point given to Calgary due to unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of the Winnipeg team, Wesmen head coach Larry McKay was so infuriated that he was presented with a red card and forced to leave the game with his team down 22-18. The Dinos proceeded to take three straight points, taking the set 25-18 and the game 3-1.
These two teams will engage in what is likely to be an exciting rematch tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium.