WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL (CANADA WEST)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2014
UBC OKANAGAN (0) AT TRINITY WESTERN (3) 
(25-20, 25-13, 25-23)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NO. 5 SPARTANS GET WEEKEND SWEEP OF NO. 4 HEAT

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Second year outside Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) with 16 kills and fourth year middle Alicia Perrin (Creston, B.C.) with 10 kills and 10 blocks, led the Trinity Western University Spartans to a straight set win over the No. 4 UBC Okanagan Heat in Canada West women's volleyball action Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-20, 25-13, 25-23 win improves the No. 5 Spartans to 12-4, while the loss drops the Heat to 10-6.

The Spartans team block, finishing with a 13-to-4 advantage, and the TWU attack 40 kills to UBC-O 24, were the main contributors to the Trinity Western University victory.

"They are a very good team, but we were able to find good rhythm with our block and attack to start the match," commented TWU head coach Ryan Hofer. "But in the third set we started to make some unforced errors and missed serves, which gave UBC-O the chance to side-out and not face our block and have to work for their points. We have to make sure we don't do that and make every team work for the points that they get."

"Sophie and Alicia carried a heavy volume load for us tonight; they were both big at important times and came up with big kills."

Leading the way for the Heat were outside Megan Festival (Calgary) with six kills and middle Katy Klomps (Surrey, B.C.) with five kills.

The Spartans block was working well to start the match as TWU used three team blocks to earn a 25-20 first set victory. The set was tight early with TWU holding a slight 10-9 lead. But the middle of the set would belong to the Spartans as they got separation to take a 16-12 lead into the break. TWU would extend the lead to 21-15 before a Carpentier kill closed out the set 25-20.

Trinity Western carried their strong play into the second set. The Spartans quickly jumped out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back from there. TWU's block got even better as they held UBC-O to a negative .162 hitting percentage while garnering six team blocks. The Spartans took a 16-8 lead into the media timeout before closing out the set 25-13 to take a two sets to none lead.

The Heat and the Spartans matched each other point-for-point to start the third set with UBC Okanagan leading 8-7. The Heat took advantage of some Spartan attack and serving errors to extend their lead to 13-8 and force TWU into a timeout. The timeout slowed the UBC-O momentum slightly, but the visitors from Kelowna, B.C. still held a comfortable six point, 16-10, lead at the technical timeout. Perrin and Carpentier got the Spartans momentum back and closed the margin to 21-22 after a Royal Richardson ace. The Heat got the next point to lead 23-21, but Perrin would tie score at 23-23 and then after back-to-back Carpentier cross court attacks TWU had a 25-23 and a 3-0 match win.

The Spartans will now head go on the road to Kamloops, B.C. to take on the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. Game times at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops on January 24 and January 25 are set for 6 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Game Notes: With the win the Spartans extend their winning streak to seven games, while the loss extends the Heats losing streak to four games…TWU rookie setter Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) led a players with 23 set assists…the Spartans finished the night at a 21.1 hitting percentage (40-17-109), while the Heat finished at 2.9 percent (24-21-105)…entering tonight's match the TWU block was at 3.55 per set, was ranked No. 1 in Canada West…

-TW-