WVB FALL TO TRINITY WESTERN IN FIRST OF TWO
(5 th year players Richelle Walton (foreground) and Laura Plouffe (background) were solid for TRU)
For immediate release: January 23, 2009
Kamloops-The playoff hopes of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Women’s Volleyball team suffered a setback tonite (Friday, Jan 23) in Langley. The WolfPack lost to the hometown Trinity Western Spartans in four sets. The scores were 25-23,14-25,15-25,18-25. The loss drops the WolfPack to 5 and 10 on the year. Trinity improves to 10 and 5.
The WolfPack were led by Richelle Walton. The 5 th year outside hitter is playing her final CIS regular season matches in her home town. Walton had 15 kills on 43 attempts. She also had two service aces, seven digs and three block assists.
Stine Christainsen (2nd year, setter, Ribe, Denmark) had 27 assists. Laura Plouffe (5 th year, libero, Sherwood Park, Alta) had 13 digs for TRU.
Trinity Western University sisters Dayna Jansen Van Doorn and Kara Jansen Van Doorn of Langley, B.C. led the Spartans . Kara led the Spartans on the attack with 14 kills, while big sister Dayna led at the net and the end line with seven blocks, five service aces and seven kills.
The WolfPack came out strong to start the match. TRU used the strong serving of Christiansen and Walton to take an 8-4 lead at the first break. The Spartans responded and after a service ace by Lauren O'Reilly (Langley, B.C.) and a kill by Dayna Jansen Van Doorn they had tied the match at 12-12 and forced the WolfPack into a timeout. The two teams played side-out ball from there to 19-19. Then the WolfPack got the separation they needed with a 6-2 run to take a 24-21 lead. TWU got to 24-23, but TRU's Walton got a cross court kill to close out the set 25-23. Walton finished the set with five kills, while TWU's Kara Jansen Van Doorn and Carmen Dyck (Creston, B.C.) finished with four kills each.
The Spartans got things going in the second set storming out to an 8-2 lead at the first break, which they extended to eight points, 16-8, at the second break. Thompson Rivers was unable to get any momentum in the set as TWU's Danielle Foth served six straight to build the Spartans lead to 21-9. Foth fittingly closed out the set, 25-14, with her third kill to tie the match at one set apiece. Led by Dayna Jansen Van Doorn and Kim Klassen (Abbotsford, B.C.) the Spartans blocking finished the set with three blocks and numerous tips to effectively limit the WolfPack's attack.
TWU carried the second set momentum into the third as they jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the WolfPack rallied with five straight to tie the set at 5-5. From then on the Spartans controlled the set. Lauren O'Reilly served six straight to give TWU an 11-6 lead. Then with the Trinity Western leading 13-7 Dayna Jansen Van Doorn stepped to the end line. When she had finished she had four aces on eight straight serves to give TWU a comfortable 20-8 lead. That was enough for the home team as the Spartans took the two sets to one lead with the 25-15 win.
In the fourth set TWU once again controlled the early part of the set holding an 8-3 lead at the first timeout. They extended the lead to six points, 16-10 at the second timeout. The Spartan lead was too much for the visitors as Trinity Western completed the comeback when Dayna Jansen Van Doorn finished off the match with a middle attack to give TWU the fourth set 25-18.
Also contributing for the Spartans were Klassen with 11 kills and six blocks and Julie Koepke (Vancouver) with eight kills, two blocks and one ace, while Walton with 15 kills, seven digs and two aces and Anna Dyakiewicz (2nd year, outside hitter, Burnaby, BC) hadh seven kills and six digs led the WolfPack.
The two teams will match up again Saturday night at 5 p.m. The match will mark the final Canada West conference home games for graduating seniors Dayna Jansen Van Doorn, Danielle Foth, Julie Koepke and Keanne Tome (Delta, B.C.).
Match Notes: TWU finished hitting at 31 percent (55-13-134), while TRU finished at 12 percent (40-24-133)...the Spartans finished with 10 blocks to the WolfPack's six...TWU had seven aces (7-1), while TRU had three (3-9)...Tonight's match was only the third time in their history that TRU has taken a set off of TWU...the Spartans are 9-0 since the WolfPack entered Canada West in 2005...
(with assistance from Trinity Western Sports Information )