CALGARY, British Columbia – In a rematch of last year’s national championship the No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans defeated the No. 4 Mount Royal Cougars 3-1 Friday night on Kenyon Court at MRU in Calgary, Alta. The 25-22, 21-25, 25-12, 25-13 win improves the Spartans to 7-0, while the loss drops the Cougars to 5-2.
Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) with16 kills, seven digs and Savannah Purdy (Victoria) with 11 kills, eight digs and three blocks led the Spartans.
Nyadholi Thokbuom with 14 kills, Hley Roe with 10 and four digs, and Quinn Pelland with 36 assists, 11 digs and four blocks led the Cougars.
TWU’s Dora Komlodi (Calgary) had a strong all-around night running the Spartans offence, finishing with 37 assists to go with 12 digs and two service aces.
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“I was really pleased with the consistent pressure that we played with tonight. MRU is an outstanding team and we had to weather a lot of different kinds of storms from them, whether it was from the end line or their attacking pressure.”
“We did a good job of just making sure that we were on the right people at the right time, and making sure that we put consistent pressure on them from the baseline. And then bending, but not breaking on our serve receive by making sure that we got the ball up so that we have an opportunity to take a good swing at it.”
“When we stayed aggressive we got a good outcome and I was really pleased with the scramble of everyone tonight.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are now 27-3 lifetime against the Cougars.
• TWU defeated MRU 3-1 (25-14, 14-25, 25-19, 25-20) in last year’s U SPORTS gold medal match.
• Trinity Western finished the night hitting .324 (49-14-108), while Mount Royal finished at .145 (43-25-124).
• Both teams finished with seven team blocks, while TWU had a 42-29 edge in digs.
• The Spartans last lost to the Cougars, 3-1, in Canada West conference play on January 11, 2020 in Langley, B.C.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will match up again tomorrow night against the Cougars in Calgary, Alta. Game times is set for 5 p.m. MT and 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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.