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Canada West Semi Final: Spartans swept by hungry Wesmen
LANGLEY, British Columbia – With their backs against the
wall the No. 6 University of Winnipeg Wesmen played hardnosed
volleyball and swept the No. 7 Trinity Western University Spartans
Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C.
The 25-22, 25-16 and 25-23 win by Winnipeg forces a winner take all
third match in the best of three Canada West quarter final series
Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the LEC. The winner of tomorrows match
will advance to the Canada West Final Four next week at the
University of Alberta in Edmonton.
“We’re a good volleyball team and we scored points
because we could make plays. But regular plays don’t win you
Canada West play-off volleyball matches,” commented TWU head
coach Ben Josephson. “We didn’t play like we had
something to earn or like we had something to lose and they played
like both.”
Leftside Marc Howatson of Victoria with nine kills and five digs
and middle Rudy Verhoeff of Calgary with six kills at 62.5 percent
and three blocks led the Spartans, while outside Andrew Town of
Winnipeg with 13 kills and eight digs, opposite Matt Schriemer of
Winnipeg with 10 kills and seven blocks and outside Marc Ross of
Winnipeg with 10 kills and five digs led the Wesmen.
The Wesmen started tonight’s match strong and were able to
jump out to the early 8-5 and 16-12. The Spartans scrambled to
close to one point, 17-16, but Winnipeg quickly regained control to
lead 19-16. TWU responded and tied the set at 20-20 and 21-21, but
were unable to get control as Winnipeg took the opening set 25-22.
Winnipeg hit 48.3 percent, while TWU hit at 38.2 percent in the
first set.
Winnipeg carried the momentum of the first set into the second. The
Wesmen jumped out to 8-5 and 16-11 leads at the two breaks. The
continued their dominating play through to the end of the set when
Ross went high of the TWU hands to give the Wesmen the second set
25-16. The Wesmen finished the set at 46.2 percent, while the
Spartans finished at 4.3 percent.
The third set started with the Spartans playing hard and jumping
out to a 4-0 lead on the back of the serving of middle Josh
Doornenbal of Edmonton. But lead was short lived as Winnipeg would
go on an eight to one run to lead 8-5 at the first break. The
Spartans came back and were trailing 15-14 after a Ben Ball of
Abbotsford service ace. Winnipeg’s Dan Glasson-Lother would
get the next kill to give the Wesmen the 16-14 lead at the second
break. The overall play of the night was shown when the Wesmen went
up 21-18. Winnipeg’s Ross was flatfooted and out of position,
but he was still able to wipe the ball of the TWU block to give the
Wesmen the three point lead late in the set. The Spartans got
points back and trailed by one before middle Justin Duff of
Winnipeg hit off the block to give Winnipeg the 24-22 lead.
TWU’s Howatson found the floor to hold off match point, but
on the ensuing play Glasson-Lother sent a ball to the back corner.
Howatson dove to get the ball, but was unable to keep the ball in
play as the Wesmen closed out the match 25-23. Winnipeg finished
the set at 27.3 percent, while TWU finished the set at 16.7
percent.
Match Notes: TWU finished the night hitting at 21.8 percent, while
Winnipeg finished at 39.8 percent… the Wesmen had 10 team
blocks, while the Spartans had six team blocks…the match
took one hour and ten minutes to conclude…
Source:
Scott Stewart
Sports Information Director
Trinity Western University
