Weekly Dino Digest: 2025 Playoffs Week 1

By Maggie Hsu, February 20 2025—

After over three months of hard-fought battles and tough competitors, your Dinos’ men’s hockey team, both basketball teams and both volleyball teams are prepared for their pursuit for playoff supremacy. While games are no longer free, UCalgary students still get a huge discount on tickets when purchasing with their student ID numbers. Be sure to grab a $6 ticket online with your UCID as your discount code to help cheer on your Dinos as they battle it out at home. Check out the master schedule, head down to The Den for a quick pregame and head over to cheer them on!

Volleyball

Despite finishing 10th in the Canada West and barely squeaking into the playoffs, the women’s volleyball team are looking to start the postseason fresh in Winnipeg as they play their first game in a best-of-three series against the Winnipeg Wesmen. Start on Thursday, Feb. 20, the Dinos face off against the number 7 seed Wesmen who only lost three sets over their final four games of the regular season. The Dinos have a chance to face a new opponent in this match up as they did not get a chance to play against the Wesmen this season. First serve at Duckworth Centre is set for 6 p.m. MT.

The men’s volleyball team and first-year head coach Graham Vigrass have secured themselves home court advantage in the first round of their playoff runs as they play host to the Fraser Valley Cascades in their best-of-three series. Vigrass has an understanding of how his players are feeling in this moment and his leadership has shown to be valuable as the seventh place Dinos struggled to maintain consistency throughout the season but managed to pull it together in the final five games, winning four to pull them up the standings. They will hope to keep this momentum going to down the Cascades to push through to the next round of the playoffs.

First serve for game one of the series on Thursday is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Jack Simpson Gym. Game two will take place at 6 p.m. as well and game three, if necessary, will start at 2 p.m.

Basketball

With their third place Canada West Prairie Division finish, the Dinos’ women’s basketball team failed to secure home court advantage. In a deja vu moment, the Dinos find themselves back in Abbotsford, BC for a play-in game as they are set to play the Manitoba Bisons Friday evening. The 16-4 Dinos found themselves in a tough division but managed to sustain an 11-game win streak that extended from November until the last game of the regular season. The Dinos faced the Bisons twice this season, winning both games in high-point differential finishes as the Bisons struggled to break the Dinos’ defense. The winning team of this game will go on to face the host, Fraser Valley Cascades.

The Cascades finished as the second seed in the Pacific Division with a 15-5 record. The Dinos and Cascades have not seen much cross-conference play, having only 15 games to look back on since Fraser Valley joined Canada West with the Dinos having the winning record of 10-5. The key players to keep an eye out for will be the Dinos’ Myriam Kone who finished fifth in shooting at 16.1 points per game, just slightly behind the Cascades’ Maddy Gobeil with 16.6 points per game. However, the Dinos’ outside shooting is one of the deadliest in the Canada West with two players, Lilia Skumatova and Amelie Collin ranked in the top five for 3-point shooting percentages at 41.1 per cent and 37.7 per cent, respectively.

After finishing second in the Canada West Prairie Division, the Dinos’ men’s basketball team has clinched a quarterfinal home game. Their opponent will be decided on Friday evening as the Brandon Bobcats and Trinity Western Spartans play for the right to face the Dinos on Saturday evening.

The Dinos have consistently ranked in the U SPORTS top 10 for the entirety of the season, never falling below fourth as a precedent for their offensive power and defensive strength. Regardless of who their opponents are, the Dinos seem primed to take on whatever comes to them. The Bobcats pushed the Dinos to two of their highest scoring games this season with 211-points dropped over their singular weekend series while the Spartans have not played their host Dinos, they found themselves keeping up in the highly competitive Pacific Division that witnessed the perfect 20-0 run from the Victoria Vikes.

Tip off for the Saturday quarterfinal is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Jack Simpson Gym.

Hockey

The Dino’s men’s hockey team find themselves in enemy territory as they visit the Alberta Golden Bears for a best-of-three series against their Battle of Alberta rivals. The Dinos finished their season on a high after sweeping the defending champion, UBC Thunderbirds in their final weekend of the season. They will look to keep this pattern of giant-slaying going as they take on the 21-16-1 Golden Bears.

Track and Field

The Canada West Track and Field Championships are upon us and the Dinos are in Regina looking to claim their 17th and 18th Canada West banners.

Sienna MacDonald has had a fast year, breaking many personal bests and recently clocking the world 12th fastest time in the 60m hurdles on February 7 with a time of 7.97 seconds. Not only was she named the first star of the week by the Dinos, MacDonald was named the Canada West women’s track and field athlete of the week as well as the women’s U SPORTS track athlete of the week. In between that, she auto-qualified in the women’s long jump with a massive leap of 6.23 meters at the Pandas Open. Alongside MacDonald,

• Georgia Oland added to her list of races as she auto-qualified for the U SPORTS Championships in the women’s 300m sprint with a time of 37.89 seconds and
• Tristan Friesen booked his ticket for the U SPORTS Championships in the men’s shot put with a throw of 15.85 meters.

The Dinos men have a number of highly ranked athletes heading into this final conference meet, lead by reigning U SPORTS Athlete of the Year Noel Vanderzee who was also named first star of the week for this first place finish in high jump at the Pandas Open.

Curling

It’s a big week following reading week for the Dinos’ men’s curling team as they make a trip dwon to Lethbridge for the 2025 U SPORTS Men’s Curling Championship. After finishing as the runner-ups in the Canada West Championships, the Dinos are prepared to make their mark on the national stage.