Dinos in tough at Usports national women's volleyball championship
Tournament hosts take on top-seeded Trinity Western in quarter-final matchup
Being part of the final eight is great.
But winning it? That's a dream come true, especially for a team that's flying in under the radar at the 2022 U Sports women's volleyball championship.
And being the home team in such a situation — as is the case for the University of Calgary Dinos — would make it even more special.
“Big nationals weekend,” said Dinos first-year middle Sheridan Coninx ahead of Friday's quarter-final match against the No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans at U of C's Jack Simpson Gym (6 p.m., cbcsports.ca/usports.ca).
“I think the expectations are that there aren't really any expectations,” continued the 18-yearold Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School graduate. “When it comes to national championships, anyone can take them — any one of the eight teams can take the championship home. And we've shown all year that we're a raw team and we play with a lot of passion or energy. I guess if we have any expectations, it's that we expect to leave it all out there this weekend.”
They'll have to with the country's best invading The Jack for the three-day, eight-team season finale — capped by Sunday's gold-medal game (6 p.m.) — to crown the queens of university volleyball.
The Dinos simply don't have near the record of the others — which include the Ontario champ Brock Badgers (16-0), the Alberta Pandas (21-4), the Toronto Varsity Blues (14-1), the Quebec winning Mcgill Redmen (13-4), the Atlantic best Dalhousie Tigers (13-5) and the Mount Royal Cougars (19-7). But they're banking on it all starting from scratch, as they leave behind their 6-17 mark when they set up for first serve against the Canada West-champion Spartans (21-2).
“Trinity is one of the most balanced teams we've seen so far,” said Coninx, a born and bred Calgarian. “They've got strong offence from every part of the court — whoever gets that ball, you know they're going to come at you hard and aggressive. But the last time we played them, we rattled them a little bit. I think we showed them that we can compete at that level. We're ready to show that again this weekend to whichever team we play.”
The game plan is simple for the young, eighth-ranked Dinos — play point by point, don't worry about mistakes and be in the moment.
“We can make some noise,” said Coninx, whose 0.86 blocks per set was seventh best in the Canada West conference. “Some people might think we don't have the potential to cause some trouble and to cause some upsets. But we've known we were going to host nationals all year long, so we've had this end-goal all year. We've had our eyes on this prize.”
This prize was supposed to be eyed by the host Dinos two years ago, but the pandemic nixed that on the eve of the tournament.
So this is the re-do, but it's with a much younger bunch of U of C student-athletes, making the task seemingly that much more difficult for the home side.
“It's easy to talk down that this is a young, inexperienced team,” said Dinos head coach Christine Biggs, also new to the program after joining just 14 months ago. “But at the end of the day, it just doesn't matter. At a national championship, it literally just opens up. The opportunity is there for somebody — anybody from seeds one through eight — to win that first match and get rolling. At this time of year, every match is going to be a battle.”
She knows first-hand, having won a national crown with the Pandas in 2007, coincidently enough at The Jack with a relatively young crew.
“That was actually my first championship experience,” Biggs said. “So I think that's potentially why I feel like I have so much excitement for this young group. That was a good eye-opener of how open the field is at a national championship. The rankings don't really mean anything at this time of year. Often, it comes down to intangibles.”
Such as home-court advantage and youthful exuberance.
“Our team has proven we play our best when we're loving every minute of it,” Biggs added. “And then having everyone on board — just believing in one another — is going to be critical for us through the weekend. In my eyes, we're growing and growing, and I think we're dangerous because of that.”
COUGARS VYE FOR GOLD IN RE-DO
Call it a deja vu for the Mount Royal University Cougars. Only this time they hope the action doesn't get spiked.
Two long years ago, they were in an identical spot. The team was preparing for its first game at the U Sports women's volleyball championship before the tournament was cancelled because of COVID-19.
Now that they are back and get to play again at the U of C, the Cougars are filled with excitement.
“It's quite exciting to be back in the same place,” said Mount Royal outside hitter Madison Marshall. “It feels really good that we are able to back in this position again.”
Along with the excitement, the Cougars feel fulfilled to know that they deserve to be a part of this weekend's tournament with the best teams in Canada. After having the 2020 championship cancelled and not playing at all last year, the Cougars have clawed their way back to this stage and know the job isn't finished yet.
“Making it here a couple years ago and not playing but then making it again really shows that we deserve to be here,” said Cougars setter Quinn Pelland. “We're really excited to play this weekend.
“There's always something special about each different team. The team in 2020 was super special. We had great success and worked really well together. It's really cool how our culture has shifted, and we've carried that through to this year with different players on the court but still that same support for each other.”