Thunderbirds Fall in Four Sets to Spartans

LANGLEY – The UBC Thunderbirds came up short in a 3-1 loss to the No. 2 Trinity Western Spartans on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-23, 25-16, 15-25, and 25-22 loss keeps the Spartans unbeaten at 3-0 in Canada West conference play, while dropping the Thunderbirds to 1-2.

Cara Kovacs (Vancouver) led the Thunderbirds with a match-high 19 kills and Elise Petit (Redmond, Wash.) added 11 kills and three aces for the ‘Birds.  TWU setter Olivia Heinen (Langley, B.C.) finished with 32 assists to lead the Spartan attack, while UBC setter Kayla Oxland (Vancouver) finished with 39 assists. In addition to Savannah Purdy’s 16 kills, the Spartans had solid performances from Avery Heppell (Langley, B.C.) with eight kills and three blocks and Mikayla Benterud (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with seven kills.

AS IT HAPPENED
The first set had the Thunderbirds take control early in set jumping out to an 8-4 lead, which they extended to 16-11 at the media timeout. The Spartans climbed back to trail by one points, 20-19 after a kill from Purdy and force the Thunderbirds to take a timeout. Out of the break TWU tied the set at 20-20 after a UBC setting error. UBC took the next two points and led 22-20 after a free ball kill from the Thunderbirds Claire Cossarini (Calgary). From there it was all TWU as the Spartans took five of the next six points, including the last four points off the set. UBC had the edge in kills 14-13 with both teams hitting at .250. UBC also had the edge in blocks 4-2. Purdy led TWU with five kills, while Kovacs led UBC with five kills as well.

The Spartans carried their momentum into the second set as they took the early 6-1 lead after a Purdy kill. TWU extended the lead to 10-3 after a service ace from Mikayla Benterud as UBC took a timeout to slow the Spartans momentum. TWU continued to control the set and after a UBC attack error took a sizable 16-8 lead into the break. The two teams exchanged points for the remainder of the set as the Spartans took the set 25-16, after a service ace from TWU’s Purdy, and a 2-0 lead in the match. Purdy continued to be the go to for the Spartans as she finished the set with nine kills, while Kovacs finished the set with seven total kills. TWU did not have an attack error in the set and finished with eight kills hitting .421, while UBC had eight attack errors with 11 kills while hitting .100. The Spartans had three service aces in the set.

Both teams matched each other in the early stages of the third set. Then with the two teams tied at 10-10 UBC’s Petit’s serving and multiple kills from Kovacs and Erika Vermette (Morris, Man.), propelled the Thunderbirds to a 6-0 run to take a 16-10 lead in the break. Out of the break the Spartans went on a 4-1 run to close the gap to 17-14 after a TWU stuff block of Vermette by the Spartans Benterud and Savannah Purdy. After a time out by the Thunderbirds, UBC regained their momentum to take a 21-14 lead after a Vermette service ace. The Thunderbirds finished the set strong and took their first set of the match 25-15 to trail the match 2-1. UBC improved their attack to .241 with 11 kills, while TWU struggled hitting .045 with seven kills. The Spartans finished with six attack errors in the set. Purdy added three more kills, 12, in the set, while UBC’s Kovacs added six kills, 13.

TWU regrouped after the set break and after back-to-back kills by Avery Heppell led UBC 10-6 to start the fourth set. Out of a UBC timeout the Thunderbirds Elise Petit led UBC on a 6-2 run to take a 12-11 lead and move TWU to take a timeout. Back-to-back kills from TWU’s Mikayla Benterud tied the set at 13-13. Three more kills, including two from Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) gave the Spartans a 16-13 lead at the break. The teams exchanged points with TWU leading 20-17 after a Meaghan Mealey (Calgary) kill. UBC’s Elise Petit closed the margin to one point, 21-20, with a cross-court kill. After extended rallies and back-to-back kills by Purdy TWU took a 23-20 lead. UBC took the next two points to close the margin to one point, 23-22. But that was as close as the Thunderbirds would get as TWU took the final set 25-22 and the match 3-1.

NOTABLE

• TWU is now 23-53 lifetime against UBC in Canada West a U SPORTS competition.
• The Spartans and the Thunderbirds last met January 25 and 26, 2020 at UBC. TWU swept the weekend series 3-1 and 3-0.
• TWU had not beaten UBC at home since a weekend sweep, 3-0 and 3-1, November 25-26, 2016.
• UBC finished the night with 52 kills, while TWU finished with 44 kills. While the Spartans held a .274 (44-13-113) to .226 (52-21-137) edge in attack efficiency.
• Both teams had 51 digs and four total blocks.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer 
“It’s great to have great competition in our home gym here at the LEC. UBC is a great team. I think it was good volleyball. There were moments when it was great volleyball between both teams and there were moments when both teams knew that they could play a little bit better. And both teams missed more serves then they would have liked.”

Middle attack
“Mikayla Benterud and Avery Heppell are strong in the middle for us. They did a really nice job for us. We have to be able to get them the ball better and find our rhythm. We are going to be working on that for tomorrow so we can do a better job of passing the ball”.

On Savannah Purdy
“Purdy manages the ball really, really well and she takes a heavy load for us. There’s a lot on her shoulders and she has been building up to this for four years and she is ready and does a really nice job.”

Come back after slow start
“Our girls showed a ton of character and did not give up. They started to manage their errors and started to force UBC to play the ball a little bit more and to be more aggressive at the net, which is how we want to play.”

UP NEXT
TWU and UBC will match up again tomorrow evening, Saturday, November 27. Match time at the Langley Events Centre is set for 5 p.m. PT. The match can be seen live on Canadawest.tv.