By Mark Janzen, Trinity Western University
LANGLEY, B.C. – No. 1-ranked Trinity Western continued its winning ways, capturing its 13th win in a row with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-17) victory over Regina Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
After managing to win an inefficient opening set, the Spartans (17-1) found their form in the second and third sets, running away with a convincing three-set victory over the Cougars (1-17).
Second-year left side Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) led TWU with 15 kills while hitting .423 and adding four aces. Pearson Eshenko (Banff, Alta.) had a match-high eight blocks.
The Cougars Brennan Goski and Matthew Aubrey had six kills apiece to lead Regina.
The Spartans finished the night hitting .284, compared to Regina, who was .000.
TWU had an 11-4 edge in blocks.
The Spartans escaped with the first set despite hitting just .100 as a team. TWU opened the night with a 5-0 run, but Regina got right back in it, making for a tight first set. With Regina leading 23-22, the Spartans finished the set with three straight points, capped by a Loeppky kill. The Cougars hit .000 in the set.
The Spartans turned in a much more efficient second set, hitting .429 and rolling to an eight-point win. Loeppky had five kills for a TWU side that collected five blocks in the set. Regina was held to a .033 hitting percentage.
In the third set, TWU marched out to a 9-4 lead and were in complete control throughout the set. Hitting .391, the Spartans pulled away for another eight-point win, which saw TWU nab four more blocks.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
"In the first set, it was just errors that stacked up. We missed too many serves and then we hit a bunch of balls out of bounds and had some situational errors. One of our talks was that last night I thought we were making selfish plays at times. But tonight, in the first set, I thought they made some very passive or selfless plays. So, they overcompensated in the first set. And that's what we talked about between sets. We swung too far the other way. Somewhere in the middle is the balance they need to find and I think they found a better balance, but it was never easy.
"Nobody ever felt comfortable in that game. It just felt hard the whole time. It's a credit to them and their staff. They did a lot of really tactical things against us. It was a neat game to watch from the sidelines and how our kids adapted. Regina did a good job of putting us in an uncomfortable spot for the whole match. I thought our kids responded really well in the second and third sets. A lot of that had to do with how Mark (Antoniuk, Langley) played. We call him GPS because he knows the court so well and I felt like GPS was dialed in today."
NOTABLE
• TWU has only been forced to play a fifth set twice during the regular season.
• Including preseason, TWU has a 30-1 record this year. The Spartans only setback was a five-set loss against Brandon Nov. 10.
• TWU is 37-1 all-time against Regina. The Spartans only loss was a five-setter Nov. 23, 2002.
NEXT UP
The Spartans have a bye next week before travelling to Calgary to play the Dinos Feb. 2-3. The Cougars are on the road again next weekend as they play MacEwan Jan. 26-27.
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