SPARTANS ROLL TO THREE-SET WIN, WEEKEND SWEEP

LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western competed a weekend sweep of UBC Okanagan with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-18) win Saturday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre.

Meaghan Mealey (Calgary) had 11 kills while hitting .308 to lead the Spartans (9-1), while Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) had 10 kills with just one attacking error to hit.500, and Mikayla Benterud (Sherwood Park, Alta.) had an errorless six kills on 10 attempts (.600).

The Heat (6-4) countered with Madelyn Hettinga earning a team-high nine kills.

As a team, TWU had a 15-3 edge in aces. The Spartans hit .189 as a team while UBCO hit .179.

AS IT HAPPENED 
Benterud was perfect in the first set, with five kills on five attempts to help the Spartans to an eight-point win. On the other side of the net, Hettinga led the Heat with four kills on five attempts. TWU hit .143 in the first set, while UBCO hit .138.

Both teams improved their hitting percentage in the second set, with TWU earning 16 kills while hitting .235 and UBCO hitting .182 on seven kills. After just one kill in the first set Mealey had six in the second set to lead TWU.

In the third set, TWU trailed 11-9, but the Spartans rallied with an 8-1 run to take control of the set and roll to a seven-point win. The Spartans had seven aces in the set, compared to just two for the Heat.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer 
“Our serving package was really important. We’ve been spending some time there. Making UBCO play the ball and being tough on serve receive ourselves was key for us. I was really impressed with our outside hitters – Ansah, Meaghan and Mik. They all did a good job with really good efficiencies. They made themselves hard to stop tonight.

“It was a battle. We got stuck in a rotation in the third set there and we had to just keep working through it. UBCO was doing some good things and we had to weather a storm and start creating some stuff on our own.

“I thought our transition games was really good over the weekend. We sided out at a high efficiency and we worked really hard on defence.”

NOTABLE
•    TWU has now won six straight matches against UBCO.
•    The weekend series on home court marked the Spartans first time playing back at the Langley Events Centre since Dec. 3.
•    TWU is 14-3 all-time at home against the Heat.

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 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

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