Dinos teams play for national championship berths

The busiest weekend on the calendar will see more than 200 University of Calgary Dinos student-athletes in playoff and championship competition, with four Dinos teams — women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, men’s hockey and women’s basketball — looking to punch their ticket to respective U Sports national championships with Canada West playoff series wins this weekend.

For an eighth consecutive year, the Dinos are in the semifinal round of the Canada West men’s hockey playoffs. After a feisty series with the UBC Thunderbirds which the Dinos won in three games, they face the always dangerous Saskatchewan Huskies with a berth to the 2018 University Cup on the line.

Although the Dinos are no strangers to the conference semifinal, the last time this team won their conference semifinal series was in 2012 against the Manitoba Bisons, when they were swept by the Huskies in the conference finals.

However, Calgary will head into the semifinal with confidence, as they bounced back from a 4-1 Game 1 loss to UBC with 6-3 and 4-2 victories. Riley Sheen was unstoppable for the Dinos, scoring four goals in three games and tallying both game-winners in the Calgary victories.

“It was huge for us to keep our season alive, but it is not a surprise to see our team bounce back from being down,” said Dinos netminder Matthew Greenfield. “We have had our backs against the wall the entire second half (of the season), and we have shown resiliency time and time again.”

With Canada West receiving two berths to the 2018 University Cup (the U Sports men’s hockey national championships), both semifinal series carry significant meaning to the four schools participating.

They have been two of the powerhouses in Canada West for more than a decade, and one of the great hardcourt rivalries in U Sports will be renewed this weekend when they meet in a best-of-three conference semifinal in the Jack Simpson Gym.

Owning six of the past 11 Canada West titles between them, the Dinos and UBC Thunderbirds will face off for a chance to head to the conference championship game. The series opens Thursday at 8 p.m., with Friday ’s Game 2 also set for 8 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, goes Saturday at 7 p.m.

Although repeated conference realignment means they see less of each other, it’s always an event when the Dinos and the Thunderbirds meet — and it will take on extra significance in their first postseason tilt since the 2010 national semifinal in Ottawa: the winner of the series earns one of Canada West’s two automatic berths to the U Sports Final 8 in Halifax, while the loser will need to wait another week and hope to earn the national wild-card spot.

The Dinos, ranked No. 5 in U Sports, posted a 16-4 record and easily handled the Huskies in the opening round last week.

The winner of the series will face the winner of the Alberta-Lethbridge Pronghorns semifinal next week in the single-game Canada West championship.

The Calgary women’s volleyball team earned a hard-fought first place finish in Canada West rankings and face the eighth-seeded Mount Royal Cougars in the conference quarter-finals Thursday through Saturday at The Jack. First serve is at 5:30 p.m., and the series can be viewed live on CanadaWest.tv.

Thursday’s game will be the Dinos’ third matchup of the year against the Cougars. The last time out, Calgary swept its conference foe in a two-match weekend, 3-2 (25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-10), and 3-1 (25-18, 25-22, 21-25, 2522).

Calgary ranks second overall in both hitting percentage (.224) and blocks (242), while Kate Pexman leads the conference in kills per set (3.90) and Beth Vinnell bests the competition in hitting percentage (.443).

ALSO ...

The Calgary men’s volleyball team enters the first round of playoffs against the Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton. The Golden Bears have home-court advantage and swept the Dinos in their two meetings during the regular season ... The swimming and wrestling teams are at their national championships this weekend. Track and field heads to Winnipeg for the Canada West meet, while rugby sevens ends its second season at the final tournament in Victoria.