CALGARY – The UBC Okanagan Heat men's volleyball team struggled to find their rhythm on Friday night as they lost a four-set match (17-25, 17-25, 25-23, 14-25) to the Calgary Dinos at the Jack Simpson Gym.
The Dinos came out strong in the opening two sets, hitting .467, while the Heat were unable to get their offence going as they found themselves down quickly by two sets.
The third set was a different story as UBCO found their footing thanks to a strong start to the frame, jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Calgary would battle back and the two teams traded points until the set was tied at 20.
UBCO would find another gear over the final eight points, highlighted by a pair of kills from
Seba Manuel of Kelowna, B.C., as the Heat hit .250 in the set compared to just .081 for the Dinos, to pull themselves back into the game.
However, any chance of a Heat comeback was quickly snuffed out by the hosts as Calgary started the fourth set on a 9-0 run en route to the victory.
Manuel paced the Heat's offensive efforts in the match with a team-high 11 kills.
Ashton South, playing in his hometown, was strong in the middle with seven kills on 11 attacks, while fellow hometown boy
Zach van Geel had 36 assists.
Louis Kunstmann of Neuenhain, Germany was the Dinos top offensive threat in the match, posting a game-high 14 kills.
The setback drops the Heat into fifth place in the conference with a 6-3 record and 18 points while Calgary improves to 4-5 and in ninth place with 11 points.
The two teams will square off again on Saturday to close out the Fall term. First serve is set for 3 p.m. PT and the game can be seen live on CanadaWest.tv presented by BioSteel.
