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CAMPUS ROUNDUP: Dinos, Cougars chase volleyball glory at Canada West Final Four

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The University of Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball team is headed to the Canada West Final Four this weekend, hosted by the Trinity Western Spartans in Langley B.C.

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The action gets underway Friday with a Battle of Alberta rubber match, pitting the Dinos against the Alberta Golden Bears with the first serve scheduled for 9 p.m. MT from at the Langley Events Centre. Calgary will then advance to either the gold- or bronze-medal game against either TWU or the Brandon Bobcats on Saturday.

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“I think our program is really excited for the opportunity to compete at a Final Four,” said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant. “It’s been a little while since we’ve been there. The athletes have worked hard, and they’re excited for the opportunity to compete and earn a spot to go to the national championships.”

The entirety of the Final Four is scheduled to be streamed live on Canada West TV, presented by Co-Op.

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The Dinos finished the regular season with a 13-5 record in conference play, good for second place in the Canada West Central Division. That earned them a spot in Pool C of this year’s new playoff format, sending them on the road to face the East Division champ Winnipeg Wesmen, as well as the Manitoba Bisons and the UBC-Okanagan Heat. The Dinos went 2-1 against that grouping, finishing second in their pool to advance as one of the final six teams still competing in Canada West.

From there, the Dinos were sent to Langley. By winning their opener against the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday, Calgary clinched a Final Four berth before their showdown against the host Spartans. Despite battling and keeping things close, the Dinos couldn’t pull off the upset over the No. 1 team in the country, meaning TWU won its group and the right to host this year’s Final Four.

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Canada West announced its annual all-star honourees last week, with a pair of Dinos being recognized for their efforts on the court this season. Hamish Hazelden was named a first-team all-star, while Louis Kunstmann was named to the all-rookie team. Hazelden is one of the senior leaders of this year’s squad and ranks nationally in several categories this season, including kills (third), total points (third), hitting percentage (sixth), digs (seventh) and kills/set (ninth). Meanwhile, Kunstmann has quickly made a name for himself in his first season, leading the team in hitting percentage at .434. Both also play a big role in Calgary being ranked No. 1 in the nation in blocks, with the duo ranking second and third on the team in total blocks.

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After getting off to a 6-4 start this season, the Scarlett & Gold have dropped just one game since and entered post-season play on a four-game win streak, including a sweep of the then-second-ranked Golden Bears. While Calgary is a well-balanced squad, it is undoubtedly led by senior Hazelden. The Australian product ranks third in all of Canada this season with 268 kills on the year. The Dinos defence at the net has also been a huge part of the team’s success, as they rank No. 1 in U SPORTS in total blocks (193) and blocks per set (2.92). A big part of that net success has been the play of third-year Lincoln Baines, who ranks tops in the country with 1.52 blocks per set.

The Golden Bears finished the regular season with a 15-3 record, with all three losses coming at the hands of the Dinos. Calgary and Alberta split the season series, with each team winning three games. The Golden Bears swept the Dinos in three in back-to-back matches back in November before each team posted a 3-1 win in Calgary in early January. The Dinos then recorded a pair of 3-1 wins over its interprovincial rivals in late February. Alberta’s top two schools have met plenty of times before in the post-season. The Golden Bears won the most recent matchup — a best-of-three series back in 2018. Since 2000, the two schools have gone head-to-head 13 times in the playoffs, with Calgary just being edged out, 7-6, in those showdowns.

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The other side of the bracket sees the last two Canada West champions pitted against each other in Trinity Western and Brandon. The Spartans finished the regular season 15-1 in the West Division, while the Bobcats were 9-9 in the East. Should the Dinos square off against TWU, they will look to reverse a trend of 11 wins in a row by the Spartans in the head-to-head series. Calgary’s last win in the series came back in the 2016 post-season. Meanwhile, Calgary and Brandon have a very even history. The two teams split their home series two years ago and have met in each of the past two post-seasons, with the Bobcats coming out on top of both of those series.

This year’s U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship is hosted by Manitoba and is scheduled for next weekend, March 25-27. The field will be determined by this week’s conference championships across Canada.

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WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Only four teams remain in the Canada West women’s volleyball playoffs after two weeks of intense action.

Round 2 last weekend saw versatile, adapt-on-the-fly game-play doubled with dramatic victories and see-saw thrillers. After it all, Alberta, Trinity Western, the UBC Thunderbirds and the Mount Royal Cougars are the teams left fighting. They’ll match up in the Final Four based on their performance in Round 2, with the top seed of each pool drawing the second seed of the other.

In Round 2 action, the Cougars went 1-1. Mount Royal came out aggressively in this against the Dinos, tucking their cross-town opponents away in four tidy sets, but then they lost to UBC in a five-set thriller.

What remains now is a volleyball quartet equivalent to soccer’s “group of death”. Alberta, UBC and Trinity Western account for all but four of the Canada West championships won since 1994.

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The Spartans captured the last two conference titles, in 2019 and 2020, while UBC is the most recent U SPORTS gold medallist, having won the national championship in 2019. Alberta won the most Canada West regular season games in 2021-22, and the only reason Mount Royal doesn’t have the storied past of its peers is because the Cougars are still a relative newcomer to the conference.

And after the championship-winning point is scored and the Women’s Intervarsity Volleyball Trophy is awarded, it still won’t be over; Canada West’s top medallists will be joining the host Dinos with a spot in the 2022 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship, taking place March 25–27 at the Jack Simpson Gym.

Alberta, as the Round 2 pool winner with the stronger regular-season record, will host the final four. Semifinals go Friday, while the bronze-medal and championship games are set for Saturday.

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You can catch all the action on , presented by Co-Op.

Friday, March 18

1 p.m. — Alberta (Pool D winner) vs. Mount Royal (Pool E runner-up)

3 p.m. — British Columbia (Pool E winner) vs. Trinity Western (Pool D runner-up)

Saturday, March 19

1 p.m. — Bronze Medal Match

3 pm — Gold Medal Match

TRACK & FIELD

The Calgary Dinos track and field teams are finally ready for post-season competition as the Canada West championships get underway, starting Friday, hosted by the University of Manitoba at the James Daly Fieldhouse in Winnipeg.

“There is definitely a buzz, and the team is definitely excited for this weekend,” said Calgary first-year head coach Jessica Zelinka. “With the season being postponed two weeks and everything with COVID, it has been a long time coming. There’s a lot of energy going into this weekend.”

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This season has certainly been a unique one for the Dinos.

Early in the year, the team had to cancel a meet due to COVID. Then in early February, U SPORTS announced this year’s national championships would be run from March 31 to April 2 — three weeks later than originally scheduled.

But the Dinos have taken all the shifts in stride, as demonstrated by their results all season.

Heading into this weekend’s meet, Calgary has 12 athletes ranked in the top three in Canada West, including five that own the top mark heading into the conference championships.

So while this year’s Dinos squad might not be quite as deep as the ones from two years ago that claimed a CW title on the men’s side and finished runner-up on the women’s side, they certainly still have plenty of top talent. 

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“We’re bringing a smaller roster than usual,” Zelinka said. “We’re bringing our top 12 athletes in the standings and hoping to get points anywhere and everywhere we can.” 

Meanwhile, for Zelinka, she certainly brings a wealth of experience into her first season leading the Scarlett & Gold and is looking forward to seeing her athletes in action at the CW and U SPORTS championships.

“It’s been a good first season — I’m really excited about Canada West and U SPORTS,” Zelinka added. “I experienced that as an athlete that there’s high energy around those meets and it’s more of a team camaraderie type of deal. That’s going to be really exciting that we’re here finally. Pre-season is done, we’ve done all the work, and now it’s just tuning up, mentally preparing and putting your best out there.”

This weekend’s CW Championships get underway at noon MT on Friday, with Saturday’s events scheduled to start at 10 a.m. MT. Fans can follow the action in a variety of ways, with live results available online, updates available from the Dinos TFXC social media accounts, as well as a live stream of the meet on Canada West TV, presented by Co-op.

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