LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 2 Trinity Western women's volleyball team kept its perfect early season record intact after earning a 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-12) win over Regina Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
Playing in their first game at the LEC this year, the Spartans (7-0) controlled the game from start to finish, knocking off Regina (0-9) in just over an hour. Dating back to last year, the Spartans have now won 19 straight matches, including regular season and playoffs.
The Spartans were led by Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.), who had 12 kills and four aces, while Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) added 10 kills and five aces. Setter Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) led the offence, which hit .324 as a team, with 22 assists.
The Cougars Tori Glynn had a team-high five kills on 11 attempts for a .455 hitting percentage to go with four digs. Shaynah Godlien added four kills and four digs.
TWU had a 9-1 edge in blocks and a 15-6 advantage in aces.
The Spartans opened a quick 11-2 lead in the first set on route to an 11-point win. A pair of kills from Wendel set up set point before a Cougars error gave TWU the win.
The second set was more of the same, as the Spartans scored the first eight points and maintained momentum throughout. At set-point, Cornwall won a joust at the net to finish off a second straight 25-14 win.
Just like the second set, the Spartans raced out to an 8-0 lead in the third set, before rolling to another convincing win. The Spartans pushed its lead to 12 points at set point, before second-year middle Alison Quiring (Brandon, Man.) finished off the match with her first kill of the year.
"I have a ton of respect for Regina and how they played, so I didn't quite know what to expect tonight," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I didn't want their record to play into how we were going to play them tonight because I have a lot of respect for how Mel (Sanford) would prepare her team to play us. But I thought we were solid tonight and played good volleyball. However, we wanted to meet our standards as a team, offensively and defensively, and I don't think we reached quite what we were gunning for.
"I thought Nikki did a good job of delivering the ball and keeping everybody engaged in the game and I thought our serving game was really good tonight."
The Spartans and Cougars will play the rematch Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.
Game Notes: Including regular season and playoff contests, TWU has won 16 of its last 17 matches against Regina…the Cougars have won just five sets in nine outings this year.
-TW-