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No. 4 Golden Bears win battle over No. 6 Spartans
LANGLEY, British Columbia – The fourth ranked University
of Alberta Golden Bears controlled the points late in each set as
the dropped the sixth ranked Trinity Western University Spartans
3-1 to open the weekend series Friday night at the Langley Events
Centre in Langley, B.C. The win moves the Golden Bears to 8-3,
while the loss drops the Spartans to 6-3.
“They raised their level of play at the end of the sets and
we didn’t. They are a veteran team and there resolve is
tighter. But we forgot what got us to 18 points and stopped
playing. If you are going to win you need to be the team that makes
plays after 20. Even in the second set we were not the better team
after 18 points, we had just built enough of a lead to hold
on,” commented TWU head coach Ben Josephson. “Alberta
never ceases to surprise me on how great a defence team they are.
We served well but they out defended us and out blocked us. But
even with that I felt that ever single set was in our grasp if we
just made plays down the stretch. But we didn’t and they did
and that is the difference between a team that has been there, done
that and a team that is trying to get there.”
The first set had the look of two heavy weight fighter feeling each
other out as Alberta prevailed 25-19. Alberta led 8-4 and 16-14 at
the two breaks.
The Spartans came back energized in the second set and evened up
the match at 1-1 with a 25-20 win. TWU controlled the second set
from the start leading 8-4 and 16-10 at the breaks and were able to
hold off a late charge by Alberta to take the set.
The pattern was similar in each of the final two sets. The two
teams were close till late in the set, when the Bears took over. In
the third set Alberta led 8-5 at the break before TWU responded to
trail 16-15 at the second break. But the Bears controlled the final
points to take the set 25-21 scores.
The Spartans were strong to start the fourth set and led 8-5 at the
first time-out, but the Golden Bears regrouped to lead 16-15 at the
second break. Alberta would close out the match with a 9-5 run to
take the final set 25-21.
The two teams will match up again tomorrow night. Match time at the
LEC is set for 7 p.m.
The match was streamed live on TWU’s SpartanTV at
gospartans.ca.
Source:
Scott Stewart
Sports Information Director
Trinity Western University
