ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Trinity Western’s Nikki Cornwall continues to rack up the accolades as the Spartans Women’s Volleyball team’s second-year setter was named the ArcelorMittal Dofasco CIS Female Athlete of the Week.

Cornwall helped lead her team to its first CIS championship this past weekend at the University of Toronto and was named the tournament MVP as well as Canada West First Star of the Week.

She finished the weekend with an impressive 10.2 assists per set and 3.1 digs per set in helping the Spartans defeat the University of Laval 3-2 in the quarter-finals, the University of Montreal 3-0 in the semifinals and the University of Alberta 3-2 in the final earn the CIS Gold medal.

She had her biggest match of the tournament in the final as she earned 53 assists and 20 digs while leading the Spartans to a come-from-behind 3-2 (22-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-15, 15-11) win.

Cornwall was also named Player of the Match for TWU’s 3-0 semifinal win over Montreal.

The Spartans finished their historic season having won 23 of their last 24 matches.

Cornwall is the second Spartans athlete to earn the honour this season, as women’s soccer midfielder Jessica King (Liverpool, England) was named CIS Female Athlete of the Week in mid-October.

Saint Mary’s basketball player Angelina Carvery and track and field standouts Laurence Beaudet of Sherbrooke and Sasha Gollish of Toronto were also nominated for the women’s award.

On the men’s side, University of Alberta’s Michael Asselstine, a fourth-year education student from Edmonton, become only the second male athlete in history to be named CIS wrestler of the year in consecutive seasons.

This after he successfully defended his 61-kilogram title at the national championships at the U of A.

Trailing 2-0 early in his gold-medal bout against McMaster’s Jason Buckle he responded with 12 unanswered points to earn a convincing victory.

Asselstine, a Canada West champion in each of his four campaigns with the Golden Bears, now has three CIS medals as he had also claimed silver as a sophomore in 2013.

Dalhousie basketball player Kashrell Lawrence, Laval track star Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Brock wrestler Nick Rowe were the other male nominees.

Female nominees:

AUS: Angelina Carvery, basketball, Saint Mary’s

RSEQ: Laurence Beaudet, track and field, Sherbrooke

OUA: Sasha Gollish, track and field, Toronto

CWUAA: Nikki Cornwall, volleyball, Trinity Western (recipient)

Male nominees:

AUS: Kashrell Lawrence, basketball, Dalhousie

RSEQ: Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, track and field, Laval

OUA: Nick Rowe, wrestling, Brock

CWUAA: Michael Asselstine, wrestling, Alberta (recipient)

Thanks to Mark Janzen Assistant Sports Director and for the info visit http://www.gospartans.ca/landing/index