LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 4 Trinity Western Spartans beat the No. 9 Brandon Bobcats for the second night in a row in the Canada West Quarter-Finals to win the best-of-three series and advance to the Final Four with a 3-1 win (25-23, 16-25, 25-18, 25-15) Friday night at the Langley Events Centre.
The Spartans will travel to the University of Alberta for the Canada West Final Four next weekend. Their opponent has yet to be determined.
With three Canada West teams qualifying for the CIS national championship tournament, the Spartans are now one win away from advancing to the championship tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) led the Spartans with 14 kills, two aces, seven digs and two blocks. Alicia Perrin (Creston, B.C.) had 11 kills, one ace, six digs and six blocks. Setter Nicki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) had a game-high of 36 assists.
Shanlee McLennan had eight kills, one ace, eight digs and three blocks for her Bobcats. Setter Mary Thompson had 23 assists.
TWU hit .152 per cent compared to Brandon who hit .008 per cent.
"We had to battle through this one," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "This was a tough one. We knew that Brandon is a team that can fight and they're a very good team. We wanted to go after them aggressively because we knew that they were going to come at us. It was just two teams playing really good volleyball."
Both teams stayed in close quarters in the beginning of the first set, with Brandon taking the slight lead at 9-6. TWU took its turn at leading at 15-11 and stayed ahead as the two teams headed into the technical timeout with the Spartans up 16-14. Meeting again at 20-20, TWU was able to pull ahead by late, taking the first set 25-23.
The Spartans came off their first set win with momentum and dominated the second set. The Spartans started out with the lead and never trailed. A kill by Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) at 13-10, a massive block by Carly Hamilton (Calgary) at 17-13 and a kill by Perrin at 19-13 all aided in the 25-16 Spartans win.
The third set started out looking much like the first, with the teams keeping it tight early on. However it was Brandon that made headway and developed a seven-point lead at 16-9. The Bobcats lead grew to 19-10 before a kill and an ace by Royal Richardson (Rocky Mountain House, Alta.) gave the Spartans momentum, cinching the score up to 19-15. Brandon pulled away shortly thereafter, and finished the set off at 25-18.
"We wanted to wash that set away," Hofer said about his team's third set loss. "They put a lot of pressure on. They got a lot of weird serve that got aces and it was just kind of a little bit odd. They best way to move forward was just to forget about and start fresh.
With a fourth set that kept with the flow of the rest of the game, TWU and Brandon stayed close for the first few points before TWU pulled ahead at 8-4. TWU kept its lead into the technical timeout at 16-13. Following a kill by Wendel, a final block by Wendel and Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) earned the Spartans the win 25-15.
We had to battle through this one," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "This was a tough one. We knew that Brandon is a team that can fight and they're a very good team. We wanted to go after them aggressively because we knew that they were going to come at us. It was just two teams playing really good volleyball."
"We wanted to wash that set away," Hofer said. "They put a lot of pressure on. They got a lot of weird serve that got aces and it was just kind of a little bit odd. They best way to move forward was just to forget about and start fresh."
