LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans pushed the No. 5 ranked Fraser Valley Cascades to five sets before falling 3-2 in the two hour and 30 minutes match Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-20, 24-26, 25-23, 22-25, 15-13 loss is the first time in their history against UFV that TWU has lost to the Cascades, 13-1. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-11, while the win moves the Cascades to 15-2.
 
Third-year outside Maryn Boldon (Okotoks, Alta.) with 20 kills, and 17 digs, and fourth-year middle Kaylee Plouffe (Sherwood Park, Alta.) with 19 kills, three blocks, and three aces led the Spartans. Talia Attieh with 24 kills, six digs, two blocks, and two aces, and Lauren Attieh with 19 kills, and 11 digs led the Cascades.
 
Rookie setter Tayana Dmitruk (Surrey, B.C.) finished with 40 set assists for the Spartans. While Cailin Better led the Cascades with 52 set assists.
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Cascades will finish the weekend series tomorrow night at the UFV Athletic Centre. Match time is set for 7:45 p.m. (PT) and will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
Trinity Western Head Coach Ryan Hofer
"It was a great volleyball tonight. It is always great to go head-to-head with the top team. We are working, and we are figuring things out and we are getting really close. Proud of our fight tonight. We went out with a different lineup, and I thought Kaylee did an outstanding job. ?She and Maryn carried a heavy load for us. It was a tough night, the margin of victory in Canada West is super small and we missed that small margin."

AS IT HAPPENED
The first set was even early with the teams tied 13-13. Then the Cascades went on a 5-0 run to create separation and lead 18-13. From there, it was mostly side-out ball as UFV took the opening set 25-20, to lead 1-0. TWU hit at .139 (11-6-36), while UFV hit at .265 (14-5-34).

The Spartans had a strong start to the second set and at the midway point led 15-11. But after a UFV timeout, the Cascades went on an 8-2 run to lead 19-17. Fraser Valley went up 22-19, but the Spartans responded with four straight points, and after a Plouffe kill and a Cascade attack error had set a point at 24-22. UFV took the next two points with back-to-back kills from Attieh to tie the set at 24-24. But TWU's Plouffe responded with her one pair of kills to give TWU the second set 26-24 and even the match at 1-1. TWU improved their hitting to .235 (10-2-34), while UFV hit at .204 (18-8-49).

The third set was even till 12-12 when TWU used a 6-2 run to take an 18-14 lead. UFV rallied to cut the lead to one point, 18-17after an Attieh kill. TWU took the next two points to lead 20-17 after a Boldon kill. The Cascades went on another run to take the lead 22-21 after an Attieh service ace. The two teams went back and forth and were tied at 23-23 before UFV took the last two points, with the final point from Mandi Feist, to take the third set 25-23 and a 2-1 set lead. TWU finished the set hitting at .429 (14-2-28), while UFV hit at .294 (15-5-34).

After the tough loss the Spartans had a strong start to the fourth set and quickly took a 10-5 lead after a kill by Plouffe. The teams exchanged points with Boldon giving TWU a 19-15 lead as the match progressed. Two straight UFV points made it a two-point game and put TWU into a timeout with a 19-17 lead. The teams went side-out ball until Boldon put the set away with a back-row attack to give TWU the 25-22 set win and even the match at 2-2. TWU hit at .214 (12-6-28), while UFV hit at .133 (11-7-30).

Fraser Valley took a quick 3-1 lead in the short fifth set, but TWU came back to use a 6-1 run to take a 7-4 lead and put UFV into a timeout. After two side-out points, TWU led 8-5 at the changeover. The Cascades found momentum after the swap with a kill from Attieh tying the set up at 10-10 to put TWU into a timeout. The Cascades continued their strong play and took the next two points to lead 12-10 and put TWU into another timeout. The Spartans were unable to get even as the Cascades took the set 15-13 and the match 3-2. TWU finished the fifth set hitting .167 (5-2-18), while UFV hit at .529 (11-2-17).

NOTABLE 

• TWU finished the night hitting .236 (52-18-144), while Fraser Valley hit at .256 (69-2-164).
• The Spartans finished with 12 blocks, while the Cascades finished with eight.
• Fraser Valley had an 11-6 edge in service aces.
• TWU had 56 digs to UFV's 63.
• The Spartans are currently 13-1 lifetime against the Cascades.
• The Spartans had a bye week last weekend after splitting with the Calgary Dinos, 3-0 win, 3-1 loss, in Calgary the week prior.
• Last week the Cascades swept the Regina Cougars 3-0, and 3-1 in Regina, Sask.
• The top 10 teams make the CW postseason with a play-in round for the bottom four teams in week one. The eighth and seventh place teams will be hosts for the play-in matches, with nine at eight, and 10 at seven.

 
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.
 
-TW-