LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western defeated the Fraser Valley Cascades 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-15) in Thursday night’s Canada West playoff action at the Langley Events Centre.
The No. 1 ranked Spartans are now 1-0 in pool play as the Cascades fall to 0-1. Both TWU and UFV are set to play two more matches to round out week one of the Canada West playoffs.
TWU edged past the Cascades through a strong defensive effort by the entire lineup, holding UFV to a kill rate of .026. The Spartans hit .250 on the night as Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) led the Spartans, and the game in kills with nine.
For the visiting Cascades, it was team captain Grace Warkentin who led UFV in kills, finishing with six kills on a rate of .312.
AS IT HAPPENED
A 25-20 victory was on the menu for the Spartans in the first set. TWU held the Cascades to only six kills in the set, doubling UFV’s total for 12. The Spartans also received a massive boost from the service line as Savannah Purdy (Victoria) aced three times.
TWU made quick work of the Cascades after a first set which was closely contested, bringing the second set to a 25-16 close in favour of the Spartans. Once again, UFV simply could not break past TWU’s rock-solid play at the net as the Cascades were held to six more kills.
With the Spartans taking a commanding 2-0 lead over Thursday night’s match, the sweep completed itself as TWU took home a 25-15 set victory to wrap up game one of three for TWU’s pool play.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“We wanted to make sure that our block lineups were crisp, that we followed the game plan, and that we were going to put a lot of serving pressure on them. For the majority of the night we did that, but there are a couple standards we can improve upon.
“We look at a lot of video to see what our opponents have done in the last couple matches. We want to be sharp for any adjustments they’ve made, we don’t want to take them for granted, and we want to see how they’ll come at us.
“I thought all of our outside hitters did a good job. Ansah [Odoom] hit .300 on 20 attempts, which is good, Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) hit .375, and Meaghan [Mealey] (Calgary) hit .333 on 21 attempts. We had a steady night. We’ll take this game and prep for Calgary tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
The Spartans will host Calgary (5-13) at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night (6:45 p.m., PT). Catch all of the Canada West playoff action live on cw.yare.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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