CIS women`s volleyball Thursday roundup: Trinity Western over Regina in three sets

Photo credit Trinity Western Athletics

Canada West quarterfinal 1 - Game 1 : Regina 0, Trinity Western 3 - Boxscore 

LANGLEY, BC – The Trinity Western women's volleyball team was the dominant side from start to finish Thursday night as they made quick work of the Regina Cougars, winning 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-22) at the Langley Events Centre.

Playing a Regina team that knocked the Spartans out of the playoffs last year, TWU was a motivated bunch early on as it got the night's first nine points and set the tone for the rest of the night.

From there, TWU out-blocked Regina 11 to three, outhit the Cougars 29.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent and held Meagan Onstad – who led her team in the regular season with 2.98 kills per set and had 20 kills in last year's playoff game – to just four kills on the night en route to a convincing Game 1 win.

"You're always happy with a win," said TWU coach Ryan Hofer. "It's always good to get one up on a team in the playoffs and it puts a little more pressure on them. We've got some girls on our team who have the capacity to go on runs from the service line and we want to make sure when they're serving, Regina is playing the ball.

"There were certain players we wanted to block a certain way. We need to pass the ball well and I thought our girls did a particularly good job of that. Regina was serving pretty tough tonight and we made some pretty sweet passes."

Trinity Western busted out of the gate a confident group as they started the game on a 9-0 run and never let the Cougars back into the set. Regina, led by a four-kill effort from Kaitlyn Hughes, did get to within six points, at 17-11, but wouldn't get any closer as TWU closed out the set at 25-15.

Regina managed to gain something of a foothold midway through the set, thanks to a 7-2 run that took the game from 15-4 to 17-11. But their rally was stymied shortly thereafter as TWU's Alicia Perrin went to the service line and led her team on a 7-0 run that gave the Spartans a 23-11 lead and, essentially, the game.

The Spartans were dominant on the block as they stuffed six Regina attacks and were led by Nicole Bazin, who had six blocks, and Kara Jansen Van Doorn, who had five. Jansen Van Doorn also added five kills while Bazin and Chelsea Wand each had three kills.

In the second set, the Cougars found their game and were hanging right with the Spartans in the early stages. Regina had leads at 13-12 and 15-14 and were led largely by Roxanne Olynyk, who played a prominent role in the Cougars second set attack, leading her team with four kills.

But then, the Spartans, circa "first set," arrived with a purpose.

Trailing 15-14, TWU went on an 11-1 run and ended the set with a Chelsea Hudson service ace. Trinity Western's Amy Leschied had four kills to lead a Spartans team that hit at an efficiency rate of 33.3 per cent.

The third set played out much like the second one with the teams going back and forth and neither taking anything more than a three-point lead.

The Cougars, playing a scrappy, "dig at all cost," were in no mindset let TWU snatch Game 1 in straight sets and proved that as they took a 17-14 lead midway through the contest and then had an 18-16 advantage at the technical timeout.

But the Spartans had other plans. Trinity Western rallied with an 11-5 run late and ended the contest in fashionable form.

With the Spartans trailing 22-21, Hofer took a timeout out to slow Regina's momentum that had helped them to three straight points. Out of the timeout, Leschied had a pair of kills to give TWU a one-point edge. And from there, despite Regina taking a timeout, the Spartans rolled to the next two points as Chelsea Wand had the game-ending kill to give TWU a 25-22 win and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

Jansen Van Doorn finished with a game-high 13 kills while Leschied and Wand each had nine kills. Setter Lauren O'Reilly had 31 assists and 10 digs while Nicole Bazin had a game-high seven blocks.

For Regina, Olynyk led the team with eight kills while Onstad had a game-high 11 digs.

Both teams will be back on the court Friday night for Game 2 of the Canada West best-of-three series. Game time is 6:15 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.

Match Notes: TWU had 44 assists compared to Regina's 27...TWU had 46 digs to Regina's 39.

Source: Trinity Western Sports Info