SPARTANS RALLY AGAINST HUSKIES

Box Score LANGLEY, British Columbia – After dropping the opening set, 25-20, the Trinity Western Spartans came back strong and took the next three sets to defeat the Saskatchewan Huskies 3-1, to remain unbeaten in Canada West, Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 20-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-21 win improves the No. 2 Spartans to 9-0, while the loss drops the Huskies to 5-4.

Second-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 14 kills, third-year middle Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 14 kills, four blocks, and two aces, and fourth-year outside Kirsten Kampman (Chilliwack, B.C.) with eight kills, and nine aces led the Spartans’ attack.
Keely Anderson with 13 kills, and two aces, Rosetta Cyr with nine kills, and Abbey Klein iwht seven kills led the Huskies.

TWU’s third-year Sydney Gill (St. Catharines, Ont.) led the Spartan attack with 28 set assists, while Tielle Hagel led the Huskies with 20.

AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans jumped out to the early 8-5 lead to open the match, but the Huskies went on a roll and closed the gap and further to take a 19-15 lead late in the set. TWU was unable to closer down the stretch as the Huskies took the opening set. 25-20.
 
TWU was even more dominant in the second set as they took eth early 12-4 and forced Saskatchewan into a timeout. The Spartans kept on rolling through the set to tie the match at 1-1 with a 25-14 win.
 
The Spartans carried the second set momentum into the third set and ran away from the Huskies with an early 11-2 lead. TWU never let Saskatchewan get close as the Spartans took the 2-1 set lead with a solid 25-17 win.
 
The Huskies looked like they would be forcing a fifth set to start the fourth. Saskatchewan took the early lead and forced TWU into a second time out with a 16-11 lead in the set. The Huskies continued to lead as the set progressed, but trailing by four, 20-16 the Spartans went on a 4-0 run to tie the set at 20-20 after a Kampman kill. After Cyr regained the Huskies lead, Kampman again tied the set at 21-21. Blocks by Plouffe and fourth-year outside Tamar Bil (Maple Ridge, B.C.) and a Klein attack error gave the Spartans the two-point lead, 23-21 as the Huskies called their last timeout.  Out of the time out the Spartans again went to Kampman to find the floor to give TWU match point at 24-21. A Saskatchewan ball handling error finished the match with TWU winning the set 25-21, and the match 3-1.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“Saskatchewan played exceptional defence, they really made us work hard on offence in order to score. As the match progressed we started to do a good job at managing their hitters. They have some really hot hands and some girls with big arms. And we made it tough for them to score and I thought our defence did that tonight. I felt our serving was exceptional tonight. All of our servers did a really good job of going back there and trying to get a few points and get a few runs.”
 
On Kirsten.
“Kirsten had been hitting well and I thought that we had stopped going to her for a little bit. We felt that we needed to find her in these moments, and she did a really good job of managing the ball hitting great shots, off-speed hard, using hands, and putting us in a good position.”
 
“I told her at the end of the set that the ball was coming to her and we were going to be feeding her the ball, so swing hard and aggressively. Be strong, and get a good approach. I felt she got a little bit ‘Iced’ and didn’t really have a good approach and I just wanted her to be ready.”
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night hitting at .205 (43-16-132), while Saskatchewan finished at .100 (44-29-150)
• The Spartans had 10 team blocks, while the Huskies had six.
• TWU finished with a 6-5 advantage in service aces.
• The Spartans had 54 digs, while the Huskies finished with 52.
• The Spartans are 37-18 lifetime against the Huskies.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will finish the weekend series against the Huskies tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. (PT) at the Langley Events Centre. The match can be seen live on Canada West TV.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women’s and men’s soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country, and track & field, as well as women’s rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men’s rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
-TW-