LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans dropped the first two sets before rallying for a five-set victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 28-30, 18-25, 25-15, 25-13, 15-9 win improves the Spartans to 7-12, while the loss drops the Huskies to 10-9. The win secures a postseason berth for the Spartans. TWU now holds the tiebreaker against Calgary, going down to sets won over sets lost ratio.
 
Third-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 24 kills, 13 digs, and two service aces, fourth-year middle Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 23 kills, nine digs, six blocks, and two aces, and third-year outside Faye Murray (Rosenort, Man.) with 10 kills, and nine digs led the Spartans. While Rosetta Cyr with 14 kills, 12 digs, and two aces, and Keely Anderson with 13 kills, five blocks, and two aces led the Huskies.
 
Rookie setter Tayana Dmitruk (Surrey, B.C.) finished with 46 set assists, and two service aces for the Spartans. While Tielle Hagel finished with 45 set assists and 13 digs for the Huskies.
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Huskies will finish the weekend series tomorrow night with the final games of Canada West conference play. The match time is set for 4 p.m. (PT) and will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
Trinity Western Head Coach Ryan Hofer
"I really like the resilience that this team showed to come back from being down two sets and just trust the process and be patient with their performance to follow the game plan and see where things would fall. And they started to do that and things started clicking our way, we started to get a few digs, we figured out our serve receive, we started finding our right serving targets and things just fell into place."?
 
"There are a lot of players that could be given a shout-out tonight. There's a lot of really good leadership out there, but I want to give Tayana really big props for her composure out there, her delivering the ball. and what she did to make her hitters better. And props to Kaylee and Maryn for the volume that they took tonight, and how they played."
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans started strong to open the match and took an early 10-2 lead after a Plouffe kill. But the Huskies responded and were able to tie the set at 14-14 with a 12-4 run, after a TWU attack error. The two teams exchanged points to 17-17 when the Huskies got separation with a 23-20 lead. But TWU responded with three straight points to tie the set at 23-23. TWU got to set point, 26-25, after a Boldon kill.  After an exchange of points, Saskatchewan got to set point at 28-27 but a service error tied the set at 28-28. The Huskies were able to take the next two points and the set after a kill by Taryn Hannah. TWU hit at .237 (14-5-38), while Saskatchewan hit at .186 (21-10-59).
 
The Huskies were better to start the second set and quickly took an 8-4 lead. The Spartans battled back and after an Isabella Stothart kill had cut the deficit to one point, trailing 11-10. Saskatchewan quickly took control of the set with a 10-3 run to take a 21-14 lead after a service ace by Tielle Hagel. Saskatchewan kept rolling and took the set 25-18, and a 2-1 set lead. TWU hit at .212 (12-5-33), while Saskatchewan hit at .371 (15-2-35).
 
TWU battled back in the third set and jumped out to an early 9-3 lead after Plouffe and Payton Lightfoot blocked Hannah. Saskatchewan rallied and after three straight points had cut the TWU lead to two points, trailing 12-10. But the Spartans continued their strong play in the set and used a 10-4 run to take a 22-14 lead after a Faye Murray kill. TWU finished off the set 25-18 win and cut the deficit to 2-1. TWU hit at .371 (16-3-35), while Saskatchewan hit at .147 (9-4-34).
 
The Spartans continued their better play into the fourth set and quickly took a 12-4 lead after a Murray kill. But the Huskies responded, after a timeout, with a 5-1 run, and forced TWU into a timeout leading 13-9. Out of the break TWU responded and with Boldon extending the Spartans lead to 16-10. The Huskies cut the lead with three straight points before the Spartans took four of their own to lead 20-13 after a Stothart kill and force Saskatchewan into a timeout. The Spartans Dmitruk continued her serving run of eight straight serves to give TWU the fourth set 25-13 and tie the match at 2-2. TWU hit at .323 (13-3-31), while Saskatchewan hit at .074 (7-5-27).
 
TWU took the early lead, 7-4, and had Saskatchewan taking a timeout before the Spartans led 8-4 at the change-over. TWU continued to dominate the final set getting to set point, 14-8, after a Boldon kill.  The Huskies held off one match point before xxx put the set and the match away giving TWU the 15-9 win and the match 3-2. TWU hit at
 
NOTABLE 

• TWU finished the night hitting .308 (64-16-156), while Saskatchewan hit at .194 (58-24-175).
• The Spartans finished with 11 blocks, while the Huskies finished with eight.
• TWU had an 11-10 edge in service aces.
• TWU had 78 digs to Saskatchewan's 71.
• Last week the Spartans were swept by the Fraser Valley Cascades 3-2 in Langley, B.C., and 3-0 in Abbotsford, B.C.
• Last week the Huskies swept the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-2, and 3-1 in Saskatoon, Sask.
• The Spartans are currently 39-18 lifetime against the Huskies.
• With her six blocks Plouffe went over the 250-career block mark. She now has 255 blocks in her career.
• The Spartans was tied with UBC Okanagan, and Calgary for ninth spot in Canada West for the last two playoff spots.

 
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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
 
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