VIDEO: WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL HOSTS WINNIPEG THIS WEEKEND

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2010
WEEKEND PREVIEW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIDEO: WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL HOSTS WINNIPEG THIS WEEKEND

LANGLEY, British Columbia - The No. 2 ranked Trinity Western women's volleyball team (7-1) return home after a split on the road with Alberta last weekend and will host unranked Winnipeg (3-4) Friday at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 5:00 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.

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SPARTANS (7-1)
CIS Ranking: 2nd
Canada West Standing: 1st  
Last Week: Alberta 3-2 W, 3-0 L  
Streak: 1 Loss
2009-10 CW Record: 13-7, 3rd
2010 CW Playoffs: 0-2
2010 CIS Tournament: N/A
Last CW Title: N/A
Last CIS Title: N/A
TWU Lifetime vs Winnipeg: 15-7

The Spartans came out of the shoot on a tear as they won their first seven games to start the Canada West regular season but last Saturday had the streak snapped in Edmonton when they lost to the unranked Pandas in straight sets.

For the first time all year, the Spartans offensive machine that has been Kara Jansen Van Doorn struggled to make hits as she finished Saturday’s game with only three kills on 20 attempts.  And as a team, the Spartans were good on only 14.3 per cent of their attacks and were unable to gain any traction in their second game against Pandas.

This weekend, TWU hopes to rectify what happened in the second half of last weekend’s Albertan tilt by duplicating what happened in the first half.

And although the team never found its hitting stride Saturday, this weekend, the Spartans expect to once again rely upon an aspect of their game that has typically been a strength. Trinity Western is third in CW with a hitting percentage of 23.4 per cent. Jansen Van Doorn leads the team with 3.71 kills per game (2nd in CW) and 28.4 per cent hitting (7th in CW). Setter Chelsea Hudson is fifth in CW with 9.13 assists per game.

But while the offence has been strong, the defence has been even better.  

The Spartans have held the opposition to a hitting percentage of just 12.1 per cent (1st in CW) and is also leading the conference in blocks per game with 2.74.

First-year middle Alicia Perrin leads the league with 1.52 blocks per game, while Nicole Bazin is second on the team with 0.97 blocks per game. Libero Andrea Ball is sixth in CW with 3.43 digs per game.

WESMEN (3-4)
CIS Ranking: N/A
Canada West Standing: 7th
Last Week: Sask. 3-1 W, 3-1 W
Streak: 2 Wins
2009-10 CW Record: 7-13, 8th
2010 CW Playoffs: N/A
2010 CIS Tournament: N/A
Last CW Title: N/A
Last CIS Title: 1993
Winnipeg Lifetime vs TWU: 7-15

The Winnipeg Wesmen have had something of an up and down season this year. After starting off slow, they picked it up big time with a critical pair of wins over Saskatchewan last weekend  that kept them within striking distance of a playoff spot and a .500 record.

Winnipeg has lost one game each against Manitoba and Calgary and two against UBC, while its wins have come against aforementioned Saskatchewan and one against Calgary.

Despite their recent success which helped to prop themselves up emotionally, and in the standings, the Wesmen are still statistically hovering near the bottom of Canada West in most categories.

Winnipeg is the only team to have attempted more than 1000 kills this year (1044 in 29 sets) but they’re overall hitting percentage is just 15.0 per cent (8th in CW) and they are only averaging 11.10 kills per game (8th in CW).

Lauren Sears leads the team with a hitting percentage of 29.2 per cent (6th in CW) while Carleen Kruschel is tops on her team in kills with 2.90 per game (10th in CW). Setter Brittany Habing leads the team with 8.45 assists per game.

Defensively, Winnipeg is allowing its opponents to hit 19.9 per cent (8th in CW), is averaging 1.90 blocks per game (5th in CW) and is getting 15.83 digs per game (2nd in CW).

Leading the Wesmen in digs is Sonia Rossy who has 3.59 per game (4th in CW) and Miranda Grayson who has 3.00 per game (tied for 9th in CW). Sears is also the team’s top blocker with 0.83 per game.

-TW-