SPARTANS RALLY TO TAKE THUNDERBIRDS IN FIVE

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Outside hitter Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) had a career night with 20 kills to lead the No. No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans to a five set victory over the No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West women’s volleyball Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-10 victory keeps TWU perfect at 10-0, while the loss drops UBC to 8-2 on the season.
 
Savannah Purdy (Victoria) with 18 kills and eight digs also had a strong night for the Spartans. Erika Vermette (Morris, Man.) with 13 kills and 15 digs and Cara Kovacs (Vancouver) and Brynn Pasin (Delta, B.C.) with 11 kills each led the Thunderbirds attack. Emma Gamache (Abbotsford, B.C.) had an outstanding night finishing with a career best 30 digs, one off tying the program record of 31 digs. Dora Komlodi (Calgary) finished the night with 49 set assists for the Spartans, while Kayla Oxland finished with 41 assists for the Thunderbirds.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
UBC had control early in the opening set, leading 12-8. But TWU used a 8-4 run to tie the set at 16-16. The Thunderbirds took five of the next eight points to lead 21-19 and force the Spartans into a timeout. From there it was all Spartans as TWU finished the set with a 6-1 run to take the opening set 25-22. UBC finished the set hitting .343 (14-2-35), while TWU hit at .250 (13-4-36).
 
The second set belonged to the Thunderbirds. UBC took an early 12-8 lead. The Spartans closed to two points, trailing 12-10. The two teams exchanged points, with UBC leading 15-13. But, from there it was all Thunderbirds. UBC extended the lead to five points, 20-15, and exchanged points for the remainder of the set to take the second set 25-20 and even the match at 1-1.  TWU’s attack struggled at only .106 (13-8-47), while UBC hit at .234 (14-3-47).
 
The Spartans took the early lead in the third set, up 4-0 and 7-3. But the Thunderbirds would even the set at 11-11 with a 8-4 run. UBC continued their run through the middle part of the set to lead 17-14. From there it was side out ball as UBC took the set 25-22 and a 2-1 set lead. TWU hit at .242 (12-4-33), while UBC hit at .147 (12-7-34).
 
The Spartans responded in the fourth set and jumped out to an early 10-6 lead. The Thunderbirds would cut the lead to one point trailing 12-11. But, TWU would use a 8-3 run to take a 20-14 lead and control of the fourth set. The Spartans carried their momentum through the remainder of the set as the evened up the match 2-2 with the 25-17 win. TWU hit at .393 (12-1-28), with UBC hit at .026 (11-10-39).
 
TWU started the fifth strong taking a 5-2 lead. UBC closed the deficit to one point, 8-7, just after the change over. But that was as close as the Thunderbirds would get as the Spartans took the final set 15-10 and the match 3-2. TWU’s attack was the best of the match in the fifth set hitting at .500 (8-2-12), while UBC hit at .188 (6-3-16).

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“UBC is a great serving and passing team and they have a few players who were really efficient yesterday. So we wanted to do a few things to try and slow them down a little bit.”
 
“It was a hard fought battle last night so going into tonight we wanted to make sure that we had a mindset of competing. I think we got to a point where we were competing, but we needed to find another gear. They were beating us in a number of aspects of the game and it required us to be more consistent. We didn’t have to make amazing shots, we just needed to make one good shot, one good pass, one good dig, one good set. And just keep doing good things. We didn’t need to be perfect, but we needed to be good and solid and I think that the team did that tonight.”
 
On Odoom’s and Gamache’s career nights:
“Hats off to Emma on her digs and hats off to Ansah on her kills. The two of them had an outstanding night tonight. And I thought Dora did a great job of distributing the ball. Savannah, Ansah and Emma carry a heavy load for us and they all did a great job.”
 
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are now 29-54 lifetime against the Thunderbirds, and are 8-2 in their last 10 match-ups (CW and play-offs).
• Last night the Spartans and Thunderbirds went five sets with TWU handing UBC their first loss of the season 3-2 (25-18, 26-24, 19-25, 20-25, 15-10).
• TWU hit at .250 (58-19-156), while UBC finished the night hitting at .187 (57-25-171).
• The Spartans had seven total blocks to the Thunderbirds eight. UBC was also the better from the end line finishing with a 9-3 edge in service aces.  
• The TWU individual record for digs in a match is 31. Which is held by Andrea Ball; at Manitoba; 11/21/2009 and Julie Blackburn; at Brandon University; 1/5/2007.  
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now head to Edmonton to finish of the first semester against the MacEwan Griffins. Match times on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 are set for 6 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. MT. Both matches can be seen live on CanadaWest.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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.
 
-TW-