WVB: SPARTANS SWEEP DINOS

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-0 in game two of Canada West round robin play-off series. TWU’s 25-23, 25-15, 25-18 victory improves the Spartans to 2-0 in the post season, while the loss drops the Dinos to 0-2. TWU finished the regular season at 15-1, while Calgary finished at 5-13.

Avery Heppell with 13 kills, and six blocks, Savannah Purdy with 12 kills and seven digs and Ansah Odoom with nine kills, seven blocks, and five digs led the Spartans attack, while Kenzie Vaandering with eight kills, and six digs and Regan Ingram with seven kills led the Dinos attack. TWU’s Olivia Heinen had 30 set assists, while Calgary’s Stella Rains finished with 24 assists.

AS IT HAPPENED
In the most competitive set of the match, the Spartans and the Dinos exchanged scoring runs and as they each battled for control of the opening set. Calgary scored four straight points to take an early 10-5 lead and force TWU into an early timeout. Out of the break TWU scored four straight points to trail 10-9 as the Dinos took a timeout to slow TWU. The Spartans continued to score and held the one point lead 16-15 at the technical timeout. But then the Dinos countered with a 6-2 run to lead 21-18. Again the Spartans responded and tied the set at 22-22 and then scored the final two points to take the opening set 25-23. TWU hit at .200 (18-8-50), while Calgary hit at .068 (9-6-44). Calgary had six blocks to TWU’s four and three aces to TWU’s one.

Trinity Western came out flying to start the second set and quickly took a 6-0 lead. The Spartans expanded the lead to 10 points, 16-6, at the technical break. From there the teams played side-out ball as the Spartans took the second set 25-15. TWU hit at an impressive .542 (14-1-24), while Calgary hit at .100 (10-7-30).

The Spartans continued to control the play through the third set. TWU led 8-4 to start, and expanded their lead to eight points, 16-8, at the technical break. The Dinos cut the Spartans lead to five points, trailing 22-17. But it was as close as Calgary would get as Trinity Western took the final three points to win the match 25-18. TWU hit .312 (14-4-32) in the final set, while Calgary hit at .000 (8-8-32).

NOTABLE

• TWU is 19-25 lifetime in Canada West conference play against Calgary.
• The last time the Dinos and the Spartans met in the post season was in the 2018-19 Canada West championship match. TWU defeated Calgary 3-0 to claim the Canada West banner.
• Last night the Spartans defeated the UFV Cascades 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-15), while the Dinos lost to the Brandon Bobcats 3-2 (25-20, 26-28, 22-25, 25-19, 20-18).
• TWU finished the night hitting .311 (46-13-106), while Calgary finished at .057 (27-21-106).
• The Spartans had 11 blocks to the Dinos nine. Both teams finished with five aces.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ryan Hofer
“It was a full team effort tonight, from the girls who went in on the sidelines to our middles having a good night, to our outsides doing a marvelous job of passing to Emma Gamache leading our serve receive. Praise to everybody tonight.”

“I think Ansah Odoom did an outstanding job of managing the ball, being a force at the net with her block and her offence. She played on of best all-around games I’ve seen her play. Olivia did a really good job of finding the people that she needed to in the first set to get us through it.”

On Calgary’s play in the first set
“Calgary gave us their high end in the first set. They played really well. They played scrappy defence and hit high and hard off of our hands. And made it tough for us to get into a good rhythm. It just took us a little bit of time to find our serve and a little bit of time to understand what they were trying to do with their serve so that we could get it to our setter and get our offensive rhythm.”

On the change to start the second set.
“We put pressure on them with our serve to start the second set. We have good servers and we put pressure on the right people on their side and forced them to make good shots, and I thought we did a good job of defending.”

UP NEXT
The Spartans will take on Brandon Bobcats in the final game of the round-robin play-off series. Game time at the Langley Events Centre is set for 6 p.m. PT. The Dinos will head to Abbotsford, B.C. to take on the Fraser Valley Cascades. Match time at the UFV Athletic Centre is set for 4 p.m. PT. All 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.

-TW-