REGINA, British Columbia – After dropping the opening set, 25-15, the Trinity Western Spartans came back strong and took the next three sets to defeat the Regina Cougars 3-1 to remain unbeaten in Canada West, Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport in Regina, Sask. The 15-25, 25-19, 25-13, 25-16 win improves the No. 2 Spartans to 8-0, while the loss drops the Cougars to 0-8.
Second-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 14 kills, and 10 digs, third-year middle (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 11 kills, and six blocks, and fourth-year outside Kirsten Kampman (Chilliwack, B.C.) with nine kills, and four aces led the Spartans’ attack. Jordy McEachern with 10 kills, five aces, and two blocks, and Bailey Balaberda with nine kills, and six digs led the Cougars.
TWU second-year setter Sydney Gill (St. Catharines, Ont.) led the Spartans attack with 31 set assists, while the Cougars Cassadi Klapak led Regina with 29 assists.
AS IT HAPPENED
The Cougars couldn’t have asked for a better start to Saturday’s match. Regina reeled off a 9-1 run midway through the first set, turning what had been a two-point advantage into a huge 20-10 lead. The teams traded points from there until a Trinity Western service error clinched a 25-15 win for the Cougars.
The second set saw Trinity Western jump out to a 9-2 lead thanks to seven straight points with Kampman on serve. The Cougars battled back with a 9-3 run after Trinity Western had gone up 19-10, but the Spartans finished off the set with three straight points to take it 25-19.
Trinity Western took control of the third set with a 10-1 run that featured an extended serving run by fourth-year middle Jayda Harder (Waldheim, Sask.). The Spartans ended up winning the third by a 25-13 margin.
The fourth set was a tight two-point affair until Trinity Western used a late push to pull away from the Cougars. TWU finished off the match with seven consecutive points, finally clinching the win with a Harder kill that gave the visitors a 25-16 victory.
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“A really hungry Regina team this weekend. They played super well, they pushed us in a lot of different aspects of the game and they forced us to play at a really high level, which is what we came here to do.”
“We really enjoyed the competition. I really, really liked our team’s response tonight after the first set. Regina played super well and I really like the different levels of commitment to our serve, and to the different kinds of attack we had. We had contributions from everyone who went on the floor, so it was a really good team effort this weekend, which we learned from and grew a lot.”
“Anytime you can get a couple of wins on the road in Canada West you are going to take it and learn from it and we are looking to take what we can from this weekend and move forward.”
NOTABLE
TWU finished the night hitting at .252 (51-20-123), while Regina finished at .150 (36-19-113)
The Spartans had 10 team blocks, while the Cougars had seven.
TWU finished with a 10-6 advantage in service aces.
The Spartans had 53 digs, while the Cougars finished with 41.
The Spartans are 42-28 lifetime against the Cougars.
The last time TWU lost to Regina was 3-1 on January 19, 2018, in Langley, B.C.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now return home to host the Saskatchewan Huskies on November 24-25. Match times at the Langley Events Centre are set for 5 p.m. (PT) on Friday, and 4 p.m. (PT) on Saturday. Both matches 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.
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