CALGARY - The Trinity Western Spartans avenged their Game 1 loss of the Canada West quarterfinal against the Dinos. The Spartans saved themselves from losing the series as they hit the court stronger than last night to elevate themselves to a 3-0 win (14-25, 9-25, 27-29).
In the first two sets, the cohesive and electrifying play of the Spartans kept the Dinos constantly trying to claw back into the game. Errors piled on for the Dinos and the Spartans capitalized with key kills and aces. The second set was especially difficult for the Dinos as they could only score 9 points and could not match the intensity of the Spartans.
The third set was a lot more evenly matched and a neck-and-neck competition with both teams keeping up with each other in the points contest. However, a kill by Blake Scheerhoorn and an attack error by the Dinos' Curtis Stockton gave the Spartans the 2-point lead needed to win the set 29-27. The Spartans dominated all statistical categories. They won the kills contest 41-28, the assist contest 37-26, the block contest 9-4, and the dig contest 29-19. Dino Curtis Stockton led the attack with 14 kills. The top scorers for the Spartans were Blake Scheerhoorn and Ryan Sclater who put their team in the lead with 31 combined kills. Head coach Rod Durrant was disappointed with his team's performance tonight but he knew what his team had to do for success tomorrow. "We weren't ready to play. We knew they were going to come out battling. It's on the coaching—it's on me. We just didn't have that killer instinct" he said. "We need to serve a lot better, we need to pass the ball a lot better, and keep our setter insistent. Lastly, we just need to make good decisions" With the series tied 1-1, the Dinos and Spartans will battle one last time in the Jack Simpson Gym tomorrow at 2 PM to win the Canada West quarterfinal.
