For the first time in program history, the Trinity Western women’s volleyball team is the champions of Canada West, after rallying from a two-set deficit to win 3-2 (23-25, 17-25, 25-21, 25-23, 17-15) over regular season champion Alberta Friday at the University of Alberta.
After dropping the first two sets, the Spartans roared all the way back to stun the host Pandas and capture an historic conference crown.
After rallying to take the third and fourth sets, the Spartans found themselves down early in the fifth, 5-2 and then 7-4, but a 6-0 TWU run put the Spartans up 10-7 and, after that, the Spartans never trailed.
TWU went up 14-11, but a resilient Pandas side wasn’t in a quitting mood either and battled back to even the score 14-14 and then again at 15-15. But a kill by Canada West Second Team All-Star Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) gave the Spartans a fifth opportunity at match point, at 16-15.
This time, capitalizing on a bad set from Alberta, TWU finally earned the winning point to complete a remarkable comeback.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. “You realize how hard it is to win this championship and how much work goes into making this happen.
I’m awestruck and totally proud of these girls and how hard they’ve worked to make this happen. And not just this season, they’ve been working for this moment since our last game last season.
“They’ve been working hard, even in practices, to never back down and never stop fighting. When someone makes a mistake, just keep swinging. That’s what they kept telling each other tonight.”
The Spartans will now move onto the CIS championship tournament at the University of Toronto next weekend as the top seed from Canada West.
Alberta claims the silver medal as well as the second seed from Canada West at the CIS championship tournament, which runs February 26 to March 1.
The UBC Thunderbirds will collect the third seed at the national championship event.
After winning the third set and taking their first step down the comeback trail, the Spartans rally looked unlikely early in the fourth set as they trailed 9-3 and then 14-7. But with a block from Alicia Perrin (Creston, B.C.) and Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.), TWU showed some life. And from there, the Spartans clawed their way back into the set and, with a Carpentier kill, extended the match to a fifth set.
TWU was led offensively by Carpentier, who had 18 kills while Perrin had 14 kills to go with five blocks.
Royal Richardson (Rocky Mountain House) who was instrumental in the Spartans fourth set rally, coming off the bench with TWU down 9-3, finished with eight kills and three blocks.
Cornwall finished with 49 assists and 16 digs while libero Kristen Moncks (Standard, Alta.) also had 16 digs.
Richardson was named Player of the Game while Perrin named MVP of the Final Four.
For Alberta, Meg Casault had a match-high 22 kills while Kacey Otto had 11 kills to go with six aces and 18 digs. Jessie Niles had a match-high 23 digs and Dione Lang had a match-high seven blocks.
TWU, who has been the top blocking team in the country all season, had a 13-11 edge in blocks, however, five of the Spartans blocks came in the fifth set.
Alberta had a 10-6 edge in aces and had a .170 hitting percentage to TWU’s .150.
Riding the strong service game of Otto, who earned five aces in the first two sets combined, as well as eight kills from Casault, the Pandas were poised to make the gold medal match a quick event after winning 25-23 and 25-17 in the first two sets.
In the third set, however, the match settled down and found its rhythm as the two teams stayed within four points of each other. The Spartans strung together a 5-1 lead to start, but were tied with the Pandas at 10-10.
Alberta then scored four of the next six points, but the Spartans responded by rolling off three straight to lead 16-14 at the technical break.
Carpentier scored a quick pair of points to lead TWU to a 21-17 advantage, and they never looked back as they took the third set 25-21.
The fourth set looked like a rebound set for the Pandas as they opened with leads of 7-2 and 14-7. TWU, however, refused to give in, scoring a 6-0 run before Alberta netted a pair to go into the technical timeout up 16-14.
After some back and forth play, TWU jumped ahead 22-21 following two kills by Perrin and an attack error by the Pandas. A service error tied the game 22-22, but Carpentier secured the win with two kills in the final three points to level the match.
In the fifth, the Pandas once again came out strong to start, earning a 5-2 lead, but once again, TWU was able to chip away at the deficit and take over the set at 10-7 thanks to four attack errors by the Pandas.
Alberta got kills from Lang and Otto, as well as an ace from Josephine Doerfler, to tie the match at 10-10, but the Spartans then regained a three-point advantage at 14-11.
Then, it was back-to-back attack errors by TWU tying the set at 14-14, but kills by Carpentier and Richardson, coupled with another error by the Pandas sent the Spartans to the 17-15 set win, and the 3-2 gold medal victory.
“We had to figure out Alberta’s systems, and figure out where we could get points and where we could limit them,” Hofer said. “That’s what happened in those first two sets.
We were trying to figure out how to play Alberta, because they were playing so well and they have such a strong serving game, that we needed to see where we could gain the advantage and expose them and we wanted to stay aggressive, that was key for us.
“We had to not get frustrated. We could feel that frustration, because we weren’t performing like we knew we could, and Alberta was playing great. We had to stay relaxed and grind one out, get that first win and move from there.”
Game Notes:
This is the first banner – Canada West or CIS – the Spartans women’s volleyball team has ever won…prior to Friday’s conference title, TWU had two CIS bronze medals (2011 and 2013), three Canada West silver medals (2009, 2011 and 2013) and two Canada West bronze medals (2006, 2012 and 2014).
Special thanks to the TWU Athletic Website for the info.
About Sportswave
SICAMOUS HOUSEBOATS
North Delta Business Association
Delta Strong
Visaic Media
X-Treme Threads
