LANGLEY, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans women’s volleyball team dropped their first game of the season Friday night, falling 3-1 to the Saskatchewan Huskies at the Langley Events Centre. 
 
The No. 1 ranked Spartans falls to 8-1 on the season with the loss, while Saskatchewan moves to 7-2.  
 
Hilary Howe (Calgary) had a game-high 14 kills, while Emma Gamache (Abbotsford, B.C.) chipped in with a team-high 12 digs for TWU. 
 
Spartans setter Dora Komlodi (Calgary) added 32 assists in the losing effort. 
 
Emily Koshinsky led the Huskies with game-highs in kills with 18 and digs with eight. Huskies outside hitter Olivia Mattern added 12 kills while hitting .364.  
 
The first set was a back and forth affair, with each team trading points throughout the entire set up to 19-19 before TWU pulled ahead and took it 25-21.
 
Into the second set, despite coming out to a 7-3 lead before the Spartans came back to tie it midway through the set 14-14, the Huskies pulled ahead and handed TWU just their second lost set of the season winning 25-21.  
 
The third set saw Saskatchewan continue rolling, coming out to an early lead and never looking back, winning it 25-18. 
 
Into the fourth set was much of the same, as the Huskies hit .267 compared to the Spartans .167 and took the final set 25-21 to hand TWU its first loss of the season. 
 
Saskatchewan hit .259 compared to TWU’s .198 through the match. 
 
QUOTABLE
Ryan Hofer – TWU Head Coach
 
“That Saskatchewan group came to play today. They’re a great serving team that put us under a lot of pressure. Today’s outcome is what we needed in a way and hats off to them today coming in here and playing really good volleyball.
 
On what didn’t go right today:
“I don’t think we found our serve the way we needed to, they put us in receive trouble and overall I think they won the serving pass battle. That’s a battle that’s really tough to win the overall match if you’re not winning that one. We’re going to work a lot on our preparation process and be ready to play tomorrow.”
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans won 25 consecutive sets in a row before falling in the final three sets.
• TWU came into Friday’s match winning 17 of their last 18 games against the Huskies, dating back to January 29, 2011.
• Saskatchewan’s last win over TWU came on Oct. 21, 2017, when the Huskies defeated TWU 3-0 in Saskatoon.

NEXT UP
The Spartans once again take on Saskatchewan Saturday (Nov. 23) at the Langley Events Centre’s Building B. 

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women’s and men’s soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women’s rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men’s hockey and as an independent team in men’s rugby. The men’s and women’s hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.

[SOURCE: Trinity Western University]