SPARTANS REMAIN PERFECT AFTER FOUR-SET WIN OVER COUGARS

LANGLEY, British Columbia – In a back-and-forth match the No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans defeated the Mount Royal Cougars 3-1 to remain unbeaten in Canada West play Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, BC  The 25-16, 18-25, 25-16, 28-26 win moves the Spartans to 11-0, while the loss drops the Cougars to 4-9.

Second-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 13 kills, seven digs, and four aces, fourth-year outside Kirsten Kampman (Chilliwack, B.C.) with 12 kills, and seven digs, and third-year middle Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 11 kills, three aces, and five digs led the Spartans. While Jessica Osczevski with 14 kills, and seven digs, Emma Boyd with eight kills, and four blocks, and Mya Morgan with eight kills, and six blocks led the Cougars.

TWU’s third-year Sydney Gill (St. Catharines, Ont.) led the Spartans attack with 33 set assists, while Lexi Herrod led the Cougars with 37.

AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans started the opening set strong taking a quick 6-3 lead as the Cougars called a timeout to slow TWU down. Out of the break, TWU continued to roll and expanded their lead to 17-8 and forced MRU into another timeout. Trinity Western played side-out ball for the remainder of the set to take the set 25-16 and a 1-0 lead. The Spartans finished the set hitting at .450 (11-2-20), while the Cougars finished at .040 (9-8-25).
 
The Cougars turned the tide in the second set as they jumped out to an early 7-3 lead. They then expanded the lead to six points, 12-6. The Spartans worked their way back into the set with a 10-6 run to trail by two points, 18-16. But the Cougars regained their control of the set and used a 7-2 run to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-18 second set win. TWU’s attack struggled in the second set dropping to .135 (13-8-37), while MRU improved to .297 (15-4-37).
 
The third set was similar to the first with TWU taking the early lead, 7-3, and maintaining control throughout the set. The Spartans expanded the lead to seven points, 13-6, before the Cougars challenged for control of the set. MRU scored five straight points to cut the TWU lead to two points, 13-11. It was as close as MRU would get in the set as TWU took the next four points to lead 17-11. The set ended in an anti-climactic sense as the teams combined to serve five of the last seven points into the net as the Spartans took the set 25-16 and the 2-1 set lead. Neither team had a solid attack in the set as TWU hit at .167 (8-4-24), while MRU hit at .000 (9-9-34).
 
The fourth set was tight early, but TWU was able to create distance midway through the set to lead 17-13. But after an MRU timeout, the Cougars rallied to tie the Spartans 21-21 with an 8-4 run. From there, it was an even match. The Spartans held off three set points by the Cougars at 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25. TWU’s Plouffe stepped up in the end for the Spartans with three kills and a service ace to put TWU up 27-26 before an MRU attack error gave the Spartans the set 28-26 and the match 3-1. TWU hit at .233 (11-4-30), while MRU hit at .212 (14-7-33).
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“The first weekend back after the Christmas break is always a challenge. It’s messy, it’s a little bit uglier than you would like. You are not playing at the level that you were when you ended and you remember from the first semester. So you are working through a lot of things. And we just asked the girls to be patient and incredibly resilient and to not give up. And I thought that they all did a marvelous job of staying calm under pressure and not giving up, fighting through it, finding solutions, dealing with the mess, dealing with the frustration, and coming through on the other side and I thought that we did that tonight.
 
On Kampman, Boldon, and Plouffe.
Those three take a heavy load for us and they are learning to manage it. I thought Kampman was outstanding tonight. Hitting over .300 supporting us in serve receive, serving really well. Maryn takes a heavy load every night and she is just learning how to manage it and figure out what shots to make and what’s available for her, and I thought that she did a really good job of working through that. Kaylee came on late, got a block, 3-4 kills, and a couple of nice services. We needed that little boost and she did that. And people around her supported her really well. It takes a setter to do that, it takes a passer to do that, and they all did a good job.”
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night hitting at .225 (43-18-111), while Mount Royal finished at .147 (47-28-129)
• The Spartans had seven team blocks, while the Cougars had 10.
• TWU finished with a 10-8 advantage in service aces.
• The Spartans had 42 digs, while the Cougars finished with 40.
• The Spartans are 30-4 lifetime against the Cougars.
• TWU defeated MRU 3-0 in last year’s Canada West championship match on March 11 at home at the LEC.
• The last time the Spartans lost to the Cougars in a Canada West conference or play-off match was 3-1 on November 11, 2020.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Cougars will finish off the weekend series on Saturday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre. The match is set to start at 4 p.m. (PT) and 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-