EDMONTON – The Trinity Western women's volleyball team will play for Canada West gold on Friday night and have earned a berth in the CIS national championship tournament for the fifth straight year after a 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-12) win over UBC Okanagan in the conference semifinals Thursday at the University of Alberta.
After dropping the fourth set 25-15, the Spartans rallied in the fifth set and with the match on the line and TWU up 14-12, Spartans fifth-year middle and Canada West First Team All-Star Alicia Perrin (Creston, B.C.) buried the winning kill to send TWU to the conference championship match and the national tournament in Toronto Feb. 26 to Mar. 1.
The Spartans will now have a chance to capture their first ever Canada West championship when they play Alberta in the gold medal match Friday at 7:30 p.m. (PT). The Pandas earned their spot in the championship game after a five-set win over UBC.
The Heat, meanwhile, will battle UBC for Canada West bronze at 3:30 p.m. (PT) Friday.
TWU has made it to the Canada West gold medal game three times in program history, in 2009, 2011 and 2013. The Spartans lost each of their three previous other gold medal matches, falling to UBC on all three occasions. The Spartans have won Canada West medals in each of the last four years, winning silver in 2011 and 2013 and bronze in 2012 and 2014.
The Spartans have now won 19 of their last 20 matches, including their final 17 regular season contests and three playoff games.
The Spartans were led by Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa), who had a match-high 14 kills, while Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) added 13 kills and 11 digs to earn player of the match honours for TWU.
The Spartans were sharper offensively on the night, recording a .112 hitting percentage compared to .090 for UBCO. TWU also brought up 50 digs while the Heat had 39. The Spartans also had a 12-10 edge in aces.
Leading the Heat was Brianna Beamish, who recorded 12 kills, while Kaitlynn Given added 10 in the loss. Megan Festival spun a match-high four aces for UBCO and Kailin Jones brought up 15 digs.
"I'm so proud of how hard this team has worked this season and how well they developed as players and as a team," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I felt it was a team effort tonight. When we played well, it was a team effort. When we lost, it was a team effort. We stuck together. We rebounded from a poor loss in that fourth set and the girls showed great character and bounced back and played some great volleyball.
"We made a commitment that we were going to keep swinging. We were going to swing and swing all the way to the end. Regardless of what happened, we were going to keep swinging. In the fourth set, we hit a little lull but we kept swinging and it really helped us in the end. UBCO is a great defensive team and a great blocking team, so we had to work hard for every point that we got."
The Spartans will now get the chance to play for the conference title against the host Pandas. The last time TWU played Alberta was in late October when the Pandas won 3-1 and 3-0 on home court. Since that series, TWU has only lost two matches.
"It's not too often that you get a chance to win gold," Hofer said. "I think this team is excited about this opportunity and is looking forward to bringing their best to Alberta. It's been a while since we played them and when we did, we didn't play our best volleyball, so we're hoping to have a little redemption tomorrow."
TWU looked dominant in the early going, winning the opening set 25-18 thanks to 14 kills and a .242 attacking percentage.
The Heat got the match back on equal footing as the Heat had its most offensively productive set of the night, collecting 13 kills, en route to a 25-22 second set win.
The Spartans responded in the third set and put together another strong effort, winning decisively, 25-19.
However, with TWU up 2-1 and with the opportunity to cement the victory, the Spartans struggled in the fourth set, hitting -.103 as a team and losing 25-15. After TWU's Carpentier tallied the first point of the set with an ace, UBCO scored 16 straight points and following the technical timeout, the teams traded points down the stretch as UBCO rolled to the 10-point win.
The teams were even to start the fifth set, but TWU scored three straight points, including two off UBCO attack errors, to gain a 6-3 stranglehold in the deciding set. Following a Heat timeout, UBCO managed to draw within one point, but another TWU run of three straight points, including back-to-back kills by Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), put the score line at 12-9 for TWU. Then, with the match on the line, four-time Perrin put the match away for good with a kill to make the final score 15-12.
Game Notes: The last time TWU and Alberta met in the post-season was in the 2013 Canada West Final Four semifinals when the Spartans beat the Pandas in four sets…TWU is 7-4 all-time against the Pandas in the post-season…the Spartans have won their last five playoff matches against Alberta…the last time TWU lost to the Pandas in the post-season was Feb. 16, 2008 when Alberta won a three-match quarter-final series in Langley, B.C.
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