KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A pair of underdogs will meet in the Canadian university men's volleyball championship final after coming up with big wins Saturday.
The No.4-ranked Trinity Western Spartans upset top-ranked Laval Rouge et Or 3-2, while the No. 6 Calgary Dinos overcame the No. 2 Alberta Golden Bears 3-2.
The Spartans, with no fifth year players on their roster, beat Laval 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 23-25, 18-20.
Trinity Western will play Calgary on Sunday after the Dinos topped Alberta 25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13.
The Spartans were led by Steven Marshall, who had 25 kills and seven digs, while Laval's Frederic Desbiens led his squad with 22 kills.
The fifth set saw the teams see-saw before Trinity went on a 3-0 run to move ahead 5-2. Then, with the score 11-7 for Trinity Western, Laval scored four straight points to take a 12-11 lead.
Trinity took the lead and the match for good when Marc Howatson came up with a kill to make it 19-18. Player of the Match Rudy Verhoeff and Ben Ball came up with a block to win the match.
"Volleyball, especially playoff volleyball, you don't expect anything." said Spartans head coach Ben Josephson.
"That point, we won and then we played the rest a point at a time. Our adage is 'pressure busts the pipe.' When a team is under pressure, it is amazing what happens. To their credit, in the fifth they made the plays. It was two great teams in playoff volleyball."
In the other semi, two-time defending champs Alberta finds themselves out of the final for the first time since 2003.
The Dinos got 26 kills from Graham Vigrass, while Spencer Leiske led the Golden Bears with 18 kills.
The fourth set saw Alberta jump to a 9-6 lead before Calgary scored three in a row to cut the margin to 10-9. The teams were deadlocked at 16 before another 3-0 run gave the Dinos a 19-16 advantage. Although the Golden Bears cut the margin, they couldn't finish it.
The deciding set saw the teams exchange points until Alberta went on a pair of 2-0 runs and eventually lead 9-5 before Calgary called a time out. The Golden Bears led 13-11 before the Dinos rattled off four straight points to win to earn their first trip to the national final since 1994-95.
"I think the last three games were decided by two points," said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant.
"At the end of day, it is the team that executes and makes plays wins. Our guys kept believing. There was no bit of doubt when they came in from a time out. . . it didn't matter the score, or the situation. They kept going and made some big plays. It is rewarding to watch them play that way when it matters."