SASKATOON – The No. 3 ranked Trinity Western Spartans made it back-to-back wins over the Saskatchewan Huskies with a 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 24-26, 25-14) victory Saturday night at the PAC.
 
The Spartans, who earned a three-set win Friday night, improved to 6-0 with the win while the Huskies dropped to 2-4 on the season.

The Spartans had four players who hit double-digits in kills, with Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) collecting 13, Rowyn Neufeld (Richmond, B.C.) earning a career-high 12, Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) nabbing 11 and Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) picking up 10. Carpentier added a team-high 10 digs while Devaney and Kristin Anton (Prince George, B.C.) had five blocks each. Setter Nikki Cornwall had 36 assists to lead a TWU offence that hit .346 as a team.

Emmalyn Copping led Saskatchewan with 13 kills while Josie Leduc added nine kills. Jina Barker had 34 assists as her team hit .093.

TWU had an 11-3 edge in blocks, but it was Saskatchewan holding a 6-2 advantage in aces.

"It's great to go out on the road and come away with two wins," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "Saskatchewan fought hard tonight and it was solid volleyball on both sides. Offensively, we had great performances all around. But we're working on getting better, so we're looking forward to our bye week and cleaning up areas where we're giving away free points. But overall, I'm really pleased with the weekend and the sweep."

The Spartans opened up an early lead in the first set before the Huskies, thanks to a pair of Taylor Annala kills, cut it to 13-10. Just as Saskatchewan seemed to be gaining momentum, TWU went on a 5-0 run to put the first set out of reach. Devaney finished off the first for the visitors with a kill. The Spartans made just one error in the first.
 
In the second set, it was the Huskies jumping out to the lead first. Jina Barker's back-to-back service aces put the Huskies ahead 8-3. The Spartans went on a quick 5-0 run to even things up, but Saskatchewan was the first to 16 ahead by one. With the set squared up at 19, the third ranked team in the nation went on another 5-0 spurt to seize control of the second.
 
No team led by more than three in the third set. It looked like the Spartans were about to make it a clean sweep when they had match point at 24-21. However, Emmalyn Copping and Annala kept Saskatchewan alive with two straight kills, before a pair of blocks gave the Huskies a 26-24 win. Saskatchewan made just six errors in the set compared to nine in each of the first two sets.
 
TWU got ahead 10-5 in the fourth set and maintained that lead to 15-10. From there TWU went on a 10-4 run to close the match. Errors hurt the Huskies again in the final set as they made 10 compared to the Spartans three.
 
Saskatchewan travels to Alberta for a series with the Alberta Pandas while the Spartans enjoy a bye next weekend before hosting Regina Nov. 13-14 at the Langley Events Centre.

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