EDMONTON – The University of Calgary Dinos women’s volleyball team dropped a hard-fought five-set thriller (19-25, 25-15, 25-15, 18-25, 15-10) to the MacEwan Griffins on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
MacEwan was led by 13 kills and 16 digs from Arden Butler, while Evangeline Zeyha set a career-high with 12 kills, six digs and three blocks.
Sophia Hansen led the Dinos with 21 kills and four digs, while Daisey Olsen chipped in with eight kills and three aces in the loss for Calgary.
With only one day remaining in the Canada West regular season, the fight for the final two playoff spots will come down to Saturday. Of the three teams in the race – Calgary, UBC Okanagan, and Trinity Western, only the Spartans won on Friday.
The Dinos are now 6-13 on the season, while the Griffins improve to 3-16.
The start could not have been much better for Calgary on Friday as they jumped out to an early lead in the first set. Olsen played a key part with an impressive run at the service line that included three aces.
While MacEwan dropped the opening set, a significant turning point occurred in the set. Down 18-9 then, Lauren Tensen served up an ace, and MacEwan clawed their way back to close the gap to 21-19 before the Dinos closed out the set.
They didn’t win the set, but they started to get their mojo back.
MacEwan was in complete control in the second and third sets never giving up a lead in the second set, and once MacEwan took the lead on back-to-back aces from Alyshia Bryks, they didn’t look back in the third set.
MacEwan had all the momentum after the third set and was looking to close it out in four sets, but the Dinos had other ideas.
Both teams battled back and forth, and it was very tight for most of the set, but Calgary was able to find some rhythm in the late stages of the set to extend the match to a fifth set.
MacEwan tied the fifth set at 7-7 on a kill from Anika Buys, and then Bryks gave them a 9-7 lead after a nice kill and a block. Tess Weber came in to serve late in the match and was able to clinch the win with a nice serving run.
The Dinos and Griffins face off in the regular season finale on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the David Atkinson Gym.
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