LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 5 Trinity Western Spartans claimed their second 3-0 win of the weekend, in a rematch against the MacEwan Griffins Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre. The 25-20, 25-15, 26-24 win improves the Spartans to 14-4, while the loss drops the Griffins to 7-11. 

The Spartans claimed the first two sets without too much of a challenge from the Griffins. However, the visiting team challenged the Spartans in the last set, leading throughout the set, and forcing the Spartans to work for their win. 

"This is Canada West, you can never take for granted that you have a lead or that you have a game," Spartans coach Ryan Hofer said. "Every team has an ability and a capacity to come back and take it away from you. So we've got to play hard all the way to twenty-five." 

Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) led the Spartans with 11 kills, three aces and 11 digs. Teammates Royal Richardson (Rocky Mountain House, Alta.) and Casie Gano (Sundre, Alta.) each had eight kills and one block apiece. Richardson also made five digs and two aces. Nicki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) had a match high of 22 assists. 

"I always like wins," Hofer said. "You know, sometimes you're hoping your team preforms at a high level though, so we're trying to meet our own standards, we've got certain goals we're trying to reach on our side." 

Dakota Wilson who tallied seven kills, seven total blocks and two digs led MacEwan. Setter Rebecca Martin contributed 12 assists to the game. 

The Spartans hit .112 while the Griffins hit .010. MacEwan had eight blocks, while TWU managed seven. 

The Spartans kicked off the game by claiming the first three points before MacEwan was able to gain one of their own. The Spartans kept the lead through the front half of the set, heading into the technical time out with a score of 16-9. MacEwan came out stronger mid set however, and worked their way up to a two-point deficit at 15-17. After a McEwan serve went out, the Spartans took the first set 25-20. 

Once again starting out the scoring, the Spartans earned the first five points in the second set. MacEwan put up a fight though and tied everything up at 15-15, but the Spartans pushed off and went on a 10-point run to finish off the set 25-15. 

"Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) went on a serving run to break the 15-15 tie in the second set," Hofer said. "Sometimes it just takes a great serving run to make the difference." 

MacEwan began the third set with their first lead of the game, scoring the first pair of points. The Spartans were able to gain some traction while still down 7-11, moving the score up to 10-11 after a service ace from Perrin. However, MacEwan maintained their lead and were up 16-12 halfway through the set. The Spartans remained determined however and moved up to 22-19 after a shuffle in the lineup. MacEwan put up a last minute fight late in the set, as the teams once again came head to head at 23-23. The Spartans proved victorious however as they claimed the match 26-24. 

Match Notes: With tonight's win the Spartans extend their winning streak to 11 matches and clinch a Canada West play-off spot… TWU is currently tied with Alberta for second spot in CW…TWU trails first place UBC Okanagan by four points, but the Spartans have two extra games remaining…TWU's last loss was in October… 

-TW-