LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans improved to 13-1 with a straight set victory over the Fraser Valley Cascades, who drop to 5-9 on the season. The Spartans took the three straight sets 25-23, 25-20, and 25-11.
Avery Heppell with 11 kills and three blocks, Annelise Hielema with eight kills, two aces, and two blocks, and Meaghan Mealey with five kills led the Spartan attack. While Sadie Wilson with seven kills, six digs, and one ace, and Lian Shworts with four kills, and one ace led the Cascades. TWU’s Emma Gamache led all players with 11 digs.
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans were in control early and quickly jumped out to a 10-4 lead. But the Cascades used a 7-3 run to close to two points, trailing 13-11. TWU took three of the next four points to lead 16-11 at the technical timeout. The Cascades kept battling the Spartans and closed the margin to two points, trailing 22-20, with TWU calling a time-out. From there the two teams exchanged points as TWU took the opening set 25-23. TWU finished the set hitting .289 (16-5-3), while UFV hit at .270 (13-3-37).
Again to start the second set TWU took an early 12-7 lead. TWU continued their strong play as they went into the technical break leading 16-8. Once again the Cascades mounted a comeback and cut the Spartans lead to two points, 22-20, with TWU taking a time-out. Out of the break the Spartans took three straight points to take the set 25-20 and a 2-0 sets lead. TWU hit at .138 percent (11-7-29), while UFV hit at -.091 (5-7-22).
In the early part of the third set the two teams exchanged points with TWU leading 5-4. From there the Spartans outscored the Cascades 5-1 to take a 10-5 lead, as UFV took a timeout. TWU was able to maintain their lead as they led 16-9 at the technical break. This time the Cascades were unable to mount a comeback as the Spartans took the third set. 25-11 and the match 3-0. TWU hit at .318 (11-4-22), while UFV hit at -.077 (4-6-26).
NOTABLE
- The Spartans defeated the Cascades 3-0 Thursday night 25-16, 25-12, 25-16.
- The TWU is now 5-0 against UFV this season in league and preseason competition.
- The Spartans best season in Canada West conference play was in 2019-2020 when TWU finished 22-2. With two wins next weekend TWU will finish 15-1, which would be the fewest losses in program history.
- TWU finished the night hitting at .247 (38-16-89), while UFV finished at .058 (22-17-86)
- The Spartans out-blocked the Cascades 7-4, had a 44-30 edge in digs, and a 6-5 advantage in aces.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“We are honouring seniors tonight and I’m just really pleased that our seniors just went out there and played with heart and everybody joined them and they all played hard. We want to play up to our standard of play and we want to force people to play at our level. I thought that our girls, no matter who was out there, allowed us to do that. I’m really proud that the girls took care of business tonight.”
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now head to Kelowna, B.C. to take on the UBC Okanagan Heat in the final conference matches of the Canada West season. Match time on Friday, February 25 is set for 6 p.m., with Saturday, February 26 set to start at 4 p.m. 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 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.
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