VANCOUVER – Trinity Western earned its largest-ever margin of victory over Fraser Valley in an end-of-the-day 39-5 win to send the Spartans into Day 2 with momentum, after a 1-2 opening day on the third stop of the Canada West 7s Series at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium.
TWU dropped games against Alberta (45-0) and UBC (59-5) before picking up the win over the Cascades.
The Spartans
Sophia Belsher (Abbotsford, B.C.) led TWU offensively, scoring three tries and knocking through a conversion for a team-leading 17 points. Graduating senior Ashely Jacob (Surrey, B.C.) added two tries, while
Danika Dool (Chilliwack, B.C.), Niki Duchesne (Surrey, B.C.) and
Matisan Kelly (Lillooet, B.C.) scored one try apiece.
Issy Scholtens (Langley, B.C.) also kicked a conversion for TWU.
AS IT HAPPENED
Alberta 45 Trinity Western 0
The Spartans opened the tournament against Alberta, who entered the weekend third in the overall series standings, and TWU was held off the scoreboard, with the Pandas starting the tournament on the front foot.
UBC 59 Trinity Western 5
Despite a lopsided final score line, the Spartans showed impressive resilience against a Thunderbirds side in TWU's second game of the day. At the final horn, TWU's Belsher scored the Spartans first-ever try against UBC since the Langley, B.C.-based side entered the Canada West fray in 2020.
Trinity Western 39 Fraser Valley 5
The Spartans scored seven tries while allowing just one against UFV on route to a 34-point win. Belsher opened the scoring for TWU and converted as well to give TWU a 7-0 lead. From there, Dool, Belsher, and Jacob all dotted down before halftime, giving TWU a 22-5 lead at the break.
The second half saw the Spartans score three more times, with Duschesne, Jacob and Kelly each scoring, while Scholtens converted once.
QUOTABLE
Andrew Evans – TWU Director of Rugby
On the victory over UFV
"
Sophia Belsher was great and gave us a lot of energy off the start (against UFV) and she got her teammates involved as well. Issy was great and so was
Ashley Jacob. The real difference was that we had the ball in that game, compared to the other games. They were able to show what they have been working on. It's nice that we kept possession of the ball because when we have it, we can score and we showed a little of that against UBC. I'm pleased that they showed that we could score some nice team tries that were well-deserved. The best try was Niki's try because it was one of those team tries that we've been working on and they executed flawlessly."
On the team's relentless work rate
"This team works incredibly hard. They are strong women and there is no quit in them – that's for sure. We've now scored against every team on the series and we just want to keep more possession and play less defence and that'll help us score more tries."
NEXT UP
The Spartans will now play at 12:30 p.m. (PT) and 2 p.m. (PT) on Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium. Following Friday's results, the third and fourth place teams from Pool B and the third place team from Pool A play a round robin Saturday to determine final placements (fifth through seventh) for the event.
BOXSCORES
Game 3: Alberta (45) vs Trinity Western (0)
Scoring summary:
|
1 |
2 |
T |
| ALB: |
19 |
26 |
45 |
| TWU: |
0 |
0 |
0 |
ALB try - #19 Sydney Gallagher (convert missed) ALB 5-0
ALB try - #12 Heidi Peake (#12 Heidi Peake convert) ALB 12-0
ALB try - #15 Michelle Gratton (#15 Michelle Gratton convert) ALB 19-0
HALF
ALB try - #23 Cassie Jorgenson (#15 Michelle Gratton convert) ALB 26-0
ALB try - #19 Sydney Gallagher (convert missed) ALB 31-0
ALB try - #23 Kate Manning (convert missed) ALB 38-0
ALB try - #3 Isabella Cuciz (#15 Michelle Gratton convert)
ALB 45-0
Game 5: UBC (59) vs Trinity Western (5)
Scoring summary:
|
1 |
2 |
T |
| UBC: |
31 |
28 |
59 |
| TWU: |
0 |
5 |
5 |
UBC try - #10 Savannah Bauder (convert missed) UBC 5-0
UBC try - #1 Mikiela Nelson (convert missed) UBC 10-0
UBC try - #22 Delaney Woods (#5 Shoshanah Seumanutafa convert) UBC 17-0
UBC try - #10 Savannah Bauder (#5 Shoshanah Seumanutafa convert) UBC 24-0
UBC try - #10 Savannah Bauder (#5 Shoshanah Seumanutafa convert UBC 31-0
HALF
UBC try - #5 Shoshanah Seumanutafa (#5 Shoshanah Seumanutafa convert) UBC 38-0
UBC try - #14 Kally King (#22 Delaney Woods convert) UBC 45-0
UBC try - #14 Kally King (#22 Delaney Woods convert) UBC 52-0
UBC try - #8 Olivia Sarabura (#22 Delaney Woods convert) UBC 59-0
TWU try - #4
Sophia Belsher (convert missed)
UBC 59-5
Game 8: Trinity Western (39) vs Fraser Valley (5)
Scoring summary:
|
1 |
2 |
T |
| TWU: |
22 |
17 |
39 |
| UFV: |
5 |
0 |
0 |
TWU try - #4
Sophia Belsher (#4
Sophia Belsher convert) TWU 7-0
TWU try - #3
Danika Dool (convert missed) TWU 12-0
TWU try - #4
Sophia Belsher (convert missed) TWU 17-0
UFV try - #4 Juliana Carter (convert missed) TWU 17-5
TWU try - #5
Ashley Jacob (convert missed) TWU 22-5
HALF
TWU try - #10 Nicolett Duchesne (#6 Isabelle Scholtens convert) TWU 29-5
TWU try - #5
Ashley Jacob (convert missed) TWU 34-5
TWU try - #7
Matisan Kelly (convert missed)
TWU 39-5
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.
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