BRANDON, Man. – Louis Kunstmann racked up a game-high 18 kills to help lead the Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Brandon Friday night from the Healthy Living Centre.
A back-and-forth first two sets saw the Dinos take complete control in the third before closing things out, 26-24, 22-25, 25-12, 25-18.
The win is a big one for Calgary after coming into the night tied with Brandon in the win column, the Dinos now move to 7-10 and into seventh place in the Canada West standings with three games to play.
The Bobcats drop to 6-9 and in ninth place in the conference standings with five games to go on their schedule.
Set No. 1 in Friday’s showdown proved too close to call, going into extras. Tied at 24-24, the Dinos helped force a pair of attack errors to take the early lead.
The home squad refused to go down quietly, using a big run early to go up 10-3. Calgary battled and pulled with one on a number of occassions but couldn’t dig out of the early hole.
It was a complete role reversal in the third, as this time it was the Dinos going on a number of big runs. Back-to-back kills from Kunstmann put the Scarlet & Gold up 7-4 early before another 5-0 run shortly there after – capped by an ace from Cole Czepuryk – put Calgary ahead 13-7. It was all Dinos from there, finishing the third on a 9-1 run to take command of this match.
Brandon got some momentum back early in the fourth with an early 6-2 edge, only to see the Dinos roar back – tying things up at 13-all before an ace from Erik Godwin finished a 3-0 burst to go ahead 16-14. Calgary wouldn’t look back from there, with a nice run from Max Penner helping close this one out.
As a team, the Dinos tied their season high with 13 total blocks on the night.
Calgary and Brandon close out their weekend set Saturday at 4 p.m. MT.
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