LANGLEY, B.C. – Spartans third-year setter Dora Komlodi (Calgary) picked up seven services aces as the Spartans swept Brandon in straight sets (25-17, 25-19, 25-15) Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
 
The Canada West leading Spartans (20-2) have now won six games in a row, with the win coming after TWU clinched a playoff berth after Friday's win. 
 
Komlodi's seven aces tied for third most all-time in program history for a 3-set match. She added a game high 23 assists, and eight digs for TWU. Hilary Howe (Calgary) contributed 14 kills and hit .444, while Ansah Odoom (Surrey, B.C.) added 10 kills while hitting .400.
 
Nicole Ashauer had six kills for Brandon, while Jamie Bain had 17 assists and Caitlin Le contributed 17 digs.
 
The first set opened with both teams trading scores until the Bobcats took a 16-15 lead. Down a point, the Spartans then turned up their offence, going on a 10-1 run to take the first set 25-17. Howe led TWU with  a team leading five kills in the opening set, as the Spartans held a .103 to .000 edge in hitting percentage.
 
TWU trailed 4-0 early in the second set, but once again responded on a 10-1 run to take a 10-5 lead. The Spartans wound up holding their lead for the remainder of the set and taking it 25-19. Odoom would pick up five kills, Jessica Bailey (Langley) added three, and Komlodi added two more service aces on the night.
 
Led by a .484 hitting in the third set, the Spartans closed out the game with a 25-15 score in the final set. Komlodi added 10 more assists to her stat line in the final set, while Howe doubled her kill count from seven to 14. 
 
QUOTABLE
Ryan Hofer – TWU Head Coach
 
"Brandon had a really good game tonight. They played tough on both defence and offence, and really made us work for the win. We really wanted to make sure our seniors were honoured this weekend, and I was really proud of how they played. It was a lot of fun to see Jessica Bailey and Michaella Crema play really well, and also get the win for Sych.
 
"We're going to use this next week to recover, to get healthy, and learn from where we were last year at this time. Last year we played MacEwan and we were burnt out, so we're going to do our best to manage our volume well and prepare our team for the last half of the season."
 
NOTABLE

• Komlodi's seven service aces in the 3-set match tied Hilary Howe (Nov. 2, 2019), MIkaelyn Sych (Oct. 26, 2018), Lauren Moncks (Nov. 22, 2013), Kelci French (Jan. 13, 2012) for third all-time in program history. 
• Brandon has now lost 11 consecutive conference games against TWU, with its last win over the Spartans coming Feb. 1, 2014 at home (3-0).
• TWU finished the match hitting .284 (40-11-102) compared to Brandon's .082 (24-16-98).

 
NEXT UP
TWU now enters a bye-week before wrapping up its regular season schedule in two weeks, taking on Thompson Rivers Friday (7 p.m. PT) and Saturday (5 p.m. PT) at Tournament Capital Centre.  

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men's hockey and as an independent team in men's rugby. The men's and women's hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.
 
-TW-