VICTORIA – Trinity Western finished a best-ever fifth-place on the Canada West Rugby 7s Series, posting a 1-3-1 record over the weekend to jump one spot above the sixth-place result that has followed them every step of the way since joining the three-stop conference circuit in 2020. 

After producing a first-ever victory over Alberta on Saturday, the Spartans put together a pair of impressive efforts Sunday that saw them drop a hard-fought 10-0 decision against eventual third-place Calgary before playing to a 10-10 tie with fourth-place Lethbridge. TWU and Lethbridge both finished with a 1-3-1 record, but the Pronghorns took fourth place after securing the tiebreaker on points differential throughout the tournament. 

The Spartans try scorers on Sunday were Matisan Kelly (Lillooet, B.C.) and Danika Dool (Chilliwack, B.C.). Kelly scored a first-half try to even the score 5-5 against the Pronghorns before Dool dotted down at the death, bullying her way across the try-line to tie the match 10-10. 

Against the Dinos, the Spartans held Calgary scoreless through seven minutes before two second-half tries sealed the win for the Dinos. 

2023 Victoria Tournament Standings
PLACE    TEAM        WIN    LOSS     TIES    
1    UBC        5    0    0        
2    Victoria        4    1    0    
3    Calgary        3    2    0    
4    Lethbridge    1    3    1    
5    Trinity Western    1    3    1
6    Alberta        0    5    0    

DAY 2 RESULTS
Game 11: Trinity Western (0) vs. Calgary Dinos (10)
Scoring summary:
 
1    2    T
TWU:    0    0    0
CGY:    0    10    10

No scores
HALF
CGY try - #11 Delaney Aikens (convert missed) 5-0 CGY
CGY try - #8 Julia Omokhuale (convert missed) 10-0 CGY

Game 13: Trinity Western Spartans (10) vs. Lethbridge Pronghorns (10)
Scoring summary:
 
1    2    T
TWU:    5    5    10
LET:    10    0    10
 
LET try - #3 Jada Holtkamp (convert missed) 5-0 LET
TWU try - #5 Matisan Kelly (convert missed) 5-5
LET try - #12 Genna Wright (convert missed) 10-5 LET
HALF
TWU try - #1 Danika Dool (convert missed) 10-10

QUOTABLE
TWU Director of Rugby – Andrew Evans 
"The level of intensity that the team is willing to play at was evident this weekend. They had a lot of ferocity. The ladies described themselves as being feral. They had a good mindset and we had a lot of confidence that we can take on anyone and play with them and get the wins. 

"We're striving to win, so that tie against Lethbridge was tough in many ways, but we're finding ways now to stay close with teams. Our defence was really good today, only allowing 20 points against two really good teams. Against Calgary, the team shutdown a lot of firepower that the Dinos have and that took a lot of energy. Then we backed that up against a good and well-coached Lethbridge team. Now, it's a matter of expecting to raise our level in training and at future tournaments. We've raised our standard and I think there's a new level of Trinity Western sevens rugby for our squad that will be played at for the rest of our history." 

UP NEXT 
The third and final stop on the Canada West Rugby 7s Series is Mar. 3-4 at UBC.

Canada West Rugby 7s Series 
Teams are awarded 15 points for a tournament win, 12 points for finishing 2nd, 10 points for finishing third, 8 points for finishing fourth, 6 points for finishing fifth, 4 points for finishing sixth, 2 points for finishing seventh, and 1 point for finishing eighth.
 
The University of Alberta (January 20/21) Victoria (February 11/12) and British Columbia (March 3/4) are the hosts for the three Rugby 7s tournaments in 2023.

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, as well as women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.

-TW-