WVB:SPARTANS AND THUNDERBIRDS OPEN LANGLEY EVENT CENTRE FRIDAY NIGHT

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL (CANADA WEST)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009
WEEKEND PREVIEW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPARTANS AND THUNDERBIRDS OPEN LANGLEY EVENTS CENTRE FRIDAY NIGHT

LIVE VIDEO

LANGLEY, British Columbia – This weekend the Trinity Western University and the No. 8 Spartans will host their first ever Canada West competition at the Langley Events Centre when they play the No. 1 University of British Columbia women’s volleyball team on Fri. Oct. 30 and Sat. Oct. 31.

The matches will be broadcast live on SpartanTV with live stats available on gospartans.ca.

The last time the two teams met in league play was in Canada West final in Edmonton. The eventual CIS champion Thunderbirds prevailed 3-2 in a five set marathon match. In last seasons conference play the Spartans split the regular season series with the Thunderbirds losing 3-0 and winning 3-2 at UBC.  Both teams come in with weekend sweeps last weekend.  The Thunderbirds are yet to drop a set this year while the Spartans have only dropped one.

The Thunderbirds are off to a strong start as they dominated the Winnipeg Wesmen last weekend winning 3-0 (25-20, 25-10, 25-15) on Friday and 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-18) on Saturday.  Leading the way for the Thunderbirds on offense are Liz Cordonier who had 16 kills over the weekend and Shanice Marclle and Kyla Richey who both finished with 15 kills.  On defense Liz Cordonier had 20 digs against the Wesmen. Katie Tyzuk and Shanice Marcelle both contributed on defense with 12 and 11 digs respectively.  Up front Kyla Richey and Jessica vonSchilling both had six blocks to lead the Thunderbirds

UBC currently is first in Canada West with a .357 hitting percentage.  The Thunderbirds return two of their top three offensive players from last year.  Kyla Richey last year totaled 279 kills 100 more than the next closest on the UBC roster. Also returning for the Thunderbirds is Liz Cordonier had 174 kills and was only three kills shy of being second on the team in kills.  Both Kyla Richey and Liz Cordonier are off to good starts as they have 15 and 16 kills respectively.  The Thunderbirds have a balanced attack so far through the season with five different players hitting double digits for total kills.

Last weekend UBC limited the Wesmen to a .038 hitting percentage. This is good for top spot in Canada West among teams that have played.  The Thunderbirds have a very strong defense and are filling in missing gaps very nicely.  Claire Hanna led the team in digs last year with 415 has 12 this season through 5 games played.  Liz Cordonier is leading the Thunderbirds with 20 digs in six games played.  UBC lost their leading blocker from last year but they are getting help from many players this year.  Kyla Richey and Jessica von Schilling both have six blocks to start the year and Niceky Osborne has four.

The Spartans last week downed the Simon Fraser Clan with on Friday and Saturday with scores of 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-23) and 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 22-25, 25-11).  Leading the way for the Spartans was fourth year outside Kara Jansen Van Doorn (Langley, B.C.) who had 26 kills in seven games against the Clan.  Also contributing for the Spartans were fifth year outside Kim Klassan (Abbotsford, B.C.) and second year outside Amy Leschied (East Selkirk, B.C.) with 16 and 15 kills respectively.

Trinity Western returns three of their top five offensive players from last year.  Fifth year outside Kim Klassan (Abbotsford, B.C.) is back for another year.  Last year she had 259 kills, which was good enough for first on the Spartan squad.  Also returning for the Spartans are fourth year outside Kara Jansen Van Doorn (Langley, B.C.) and fifth year outside Carmen Dyck (Creston, B.C.) who had 181 and 174 kills respectively.  Those three key returners are contributing so far this year as they have combined for 55 of the Spartans 92 total kills.  The Spartans are currently hitting at .228 good enough for third in Canada West.

A key returner for the Spartans defence is fourth year libero Andrea Ball (Abbotsford, B.C.).  Last year she had 372 digs leading the Spartans.  So far through seven games she has 29.  TWU lost two key middle blockers from last year in Julie Koepke and Dayna Jansen Van Doorn but the Spartan are not lacking height this year with five players at or above 6’0 tall.  Fifth year outside Kim Klassan (Abbotsford, B.C.) was the leading blocker for the Spartan players who are returning to the quad this year.


AT A GLANCE
Spartans (2-0)                                         UBC (2-0)
CIS Ranking: 8                                        CIS Ranking: 1
Last Week:     SFU 3-0 W                          Last Week:     UofW 3-0 W
                     SFU 3-1 W                                               UofW 3-0 W
2008 Conference: 14-6 (4th)                     2008 Conference: (15-5) (3rd)
2008 CW Championship: 3-1 (2nd)            2008 CW Championship: 4-0 (1st)
2008 CIS Championship: 2-1 (5th)            2008 CIS Championship:  3-0 (1st)
Last CW Title: NA                                     Last CW Title: 2009
Last CIS Title: NA                                     Last CIS Title: 2009

-TW-

Last Updated: 2009-10-30
Author: Scott Stewart
Email: ssstew@twu.ca