EDMONTON — The Trinity Western Spartans have become a puzzle that the University of Alberta Pandas have had a hard time solving lately, with the Spartans earning a hard-fought four-set win (22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20), Friday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.
Alberta is 0-5 against defending Canada West champion Trinity Western over the last three seasons and 2-8 in their last 10 meetings, including playoffs.
Fourth-year outside hitter Hilary Howe (Calgary) led TWU with 18 kills, while second-year Savannah Purdy (Victoria) had 16 kills. Mikaelyn Sych (Airdrie, Alta.) had seven kills and four blocks, while Avery Heppell (Langley) had five kills and five blocks.
Dora Komlodi (Calgary) earned 41 assists in her first-ever Canada West start as a setter.
TWU also had four players in double digits in digs, with Anasah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) and Emma Gamache (Abbotsford, B.C.) colleting 17 each, while Komlodi picked up 15 and Howe had 14.
Fourth-year outside hitter Kory White led Alberta with 19 kills and 12 digs, while third-year outside hitter Julia Zonneveld recorded 11 kills and 20 digs in the loss.
Alberta fell behind big early in the opening set, but rallied together some big runs to get a handle on the set to earn the victory, but the Pandas fell behind early again in the second and third sets, forced to play in chase mode.
The Spartans had full control in the third set and held some big leads on Alberta, but despite falling behind 16-10 and later 20-13 in the set, the Pandas clawed their way back and nearly stole the third-set win. An ace from fourth-year middle Vanessa Jarman was an exclamation mark on a 6-0 run. A big block from Zonneveld and a kill from White made it 24-23 for TWU, but the Spartans found a way to shut down the big comeback attempt by the Pandas.
Alberta battled hard in the fourth set to try and push the season-opener to the limit, but a couple of crucial errors led to TWU taking a 15-14 lead, and they didn’t look back.
QUOTABLE
Ryan Hofer – TWU Head Coach
“I’m really proud of the team to come into a gym that is always tough to play in and against a strong Alberta team and come out with a win. There were moments when you could tell it was one of our first times playing together as a group, but they settled in and really did some good things at key times. I’m really proud of having four players getting double digits in digs. Emma did a good job of running our backcourt defence and doing some good second-ball setting. I think both teams struggled a bit to pass tonight and both teams were in a lot of high ball tonight, but in the end it was two good teams battling it out.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans lost to Alberta in five sets in a preseason tilt in the Dino Cup.
• TWU beat the Pandas in back-to-back matches in last year’s CW semifinals, winning both games in four sets to advance to the conference final.
• Dating back to last year’s regular season, the Spartans have now won five straight games against the Pandas in four sets.
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Pandas will wrap up their Canada West opening-weekend series on Saturday (Oct. 19) at 4 p.m. (PT).
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]