CALGARY – The Trinity Western University Spartans rode outstanding performances from Carmen Dyck and Kara Jansen Van Doorn all the way to a 3-1 victory over the University of Calgary Dinos in the Jack Simpson Gym.
BOX SCORE
In the victory, Trinity Western improves to 5-5, while Calgary drops to 4-6 to finish off the fall semester.
The Dinos simply could not keep up with Trinity Western's attack, which held an eight kill advantage over the home team throughout the match (55-47). Calgary also had four more errors than Trinity, and gave up four service aces.
The match started out on an entertaining note for the Calgary crowd, as long rallies mixed in with strong kills for both teams structured the first set. While both teams played similarly strong volleyball, it was the Dinos who were able to eke out the set on the strength of 10 kills from Maura Hayes and Raynell Lavertu.
Back and forth for the majority of the second set, the Spartans broke it open midway through. Up 16-15, the Spartans rode a 9-2 run to finish out the set, where they owned an impressive 44 percent kill percentage. Four attack errors for the Dinos and three hard kills from Jansen Van Doorn (six in all during the set) were a part of the late Trinity run.
The Spartans used the momentum gained from their second set victory to quite simply overpower the Dinos in the third, where led by five kills from Carmen Dyck, the Langley-based squad owned a 16-10 attacking advantage. The Dinos attempted to find a spark off their bench in the third set, where Melanie Miazga found the line on a nice set from Kathryn Moncks to bring it within three at 16-19. However a 6-1 run to finish the game for Trinity Western ended any hopes Calgary may have had to come back.
The Dinos were nearly able to take the fourth set, where at 22-19 they negated a three point deficit courtesy of two Jansen Van Doorn errors and an outstanding solo block by Lindsay Russell for the Dinos. With the score tied at 22, Raynell Lavertu then made her own spectacular play, diving underneath the net onto the Spartans side to bring a stray ball back onto her court.
However the ball nicked the velcro straps which hold the net onto the post, which the officials ruled a violation to wipe out the hustle play. The Spartans would use this to their advantage, eventually beating the Dinos by a score of 25-23.
Trinity Western got fantastic performances from Jansen Van Doorn and Carmen Dyck, who had an outstanding 19 and 16 kills respectively. Dyck scored with remarkable efficiency on the evening, connecting on 11 of 14 kills through three sets, and finishing with a strong 58% rate.
Calgary was led by Hayes and Lavertu, who each had 14 kills, while Lavertu added a team-high 14 digs as well. Laura Spence and Ali Sandholm also combined for 10 blocks in their attempt to slow down the Spartan attack.
Both teams will have home dates to start the second half of the Canada West season, where on the weekend of January 8th, the Trinity Western Spartans will host the Alberta Pandas, while the Calgary Dinos will invite the Saskatchewan Huskies to the Jack Simpson.
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