LANGLEY, British Columbia – Third-year middle Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 16 kills, and four aces, and second-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 18 kills the Trinity Western Spartans defeated the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-1 at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-21, 25-27, 25-16, 25-17 win improves the No. 2 Spartans to 6-0, while the loss drops the Heat to 3-3.
UBC Okanagan had a diverse attack with Amaya Perry with eight kills, and four blocks, and Madison Gardner, Korey Jankins, and Natalie Funk each adding six kills each.
TWU second-year setter Sydney Gill (St. Catharines, Ont.) ran the Spartans attack and finished with 29 set assists. UBC-O setter Lexi Prefontaine finished with 27 assists to lead the Heat.
AS IT HAPPENED
The opening set was even to 19-19. From that point. TWU took four of the next five points to lead 23-20. UBC-O took the next point before TWU closed out the set 25-21 after back-to-back kills from Plouffe. The Spartans hit .351 (15-2-37) in the opening set, while the Heat hit at .321 (12-3-28).
The second set was even for the entire game. Neither team was able to create separation. TWU had set points at 25-24 but were unable to convert. UBC-O then had their set point shot at 26-25. The Heat’s Natalie Funk and Amaya Perry were able to get the double block and even the match at 1-1. In the second set TWU hit at .214 (14-5-42), while UBC-O hit at .270 (15-5-37).
The Spartans came out strong in the third set and jumped out to a 9-3 lead after a kill by Boldon. A service ace by TWU fourth-year middle Jayda Harder (Waldheim, Sask.) gave the Spartans a 16-9 lead and forced UBC-O to take a timeout. Out of the break, the Heat cut the Spartans lead to three points, 17-14, after a Natalie Funk kill, as TWU took a timeout. TWU regained control of the set and used an 8-2 run to close out the set 25-16. The Spartans hit at .367 (15-4-30), while the Heat hit at .045 (5-4-22).
UBC Okanagan jumped out to an early 7-3 lead to start the fourth set, but Trinity Western cut the lead and more to take a two-point, 12-10, lead and force the Heat into a timeout. The Spartans kept rolling and extended the lead to 15-10 and prompted another Heat timeout. TWU kept rolling and took the set 25-17 after a Boldon kill.
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“It was a great competitive battle this weekend against a quality Canada West opponent. They are a really good serving team, with some great servers. And we got to work on our serve receive, it exposed some things and it definitely gives us things to work on as we move forward and work to get a little bit better.”
“I liked how we responded after a few difficult sets. The second set was really tight. We asked the team to hit their serves and to be really aggressive on the attack and on the net. And those two things created a little bit of an edge for us.”
On Plouffe and Boldon:
“Kaylee and Maryn take a tremendous load for us, their efficiencies are super high, and they are developing their range. I super proud of the work they did tonight.”
NOTABLE
TWU finished the night hitting at .326 (56-14-129), while UBC Okanagan finished at .171 (41-21-117)
The Spartans had nine team blocks, while the Heat had seven.
TWU had 10 service aces, while UBC-O had nine.
The Spartans are 31-6 lifetime against the Heat.
The last time TWU lost to UBC-O was 3-1 on October 28, 2017 in Langley, B.C.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now travel to Regina, Sask. next weekend to take on the Regina Cougars on Friday, November 17, and Saturday, November 18. Match time on both nights is set for 6 p.m. 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.