The Trinity Western Spartans have two tries — and need just one win — to book a return to the national championships.
The women’s volleyball team made short work of the Calgary Dinos — winning 3-1 (25-19,25-20,21-25,25-22) and 3-0 (25-22,25-17,25-20) — to capture the Canada West best-of-three playoff series.
With the victory, the Spartans advance to the Canada West final four championships this weekend at UBC. The top three teams will advance to the CIS national championships at Hamilton’s McMaster University.
“I’m thrilled for the girls and I’m excited with how they played,” said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer.
“They maintained their composure throughout the weekend.
“They had to fight some tough battles there and I thought they did a really good job.”
Serving and passing were key for the Spartans, he added.
The Spartans out-blocked the Dinos nine to four and had a .189 hitting percentage compared to Calgary’s .084.
Alicia Perrin had a game-high 10 kills on Friday, as well as six blocks.
Amy Leschied came through with nine kills, two aces and two blocks while Kelci French had four kills, nine assists, three blocks and seven digs.
Nicole Bazin contributed four kills and three blocks.
During Thursday’s four-set victory, Trinity Western rode the hot outside hands of Royal Richardson and Leschied and a strong middle attack from Perrin and Bazin to take the first two sets. After Calgary extended the match, the fourth set was tied at 22 before the Spartans closed things out with three straight points.
Richardson led Trinity Western with 15 kills, two blocks and a pair of aces, while Leschied had 11 kills and six digs.
Perrin had six kills, five blocks and two aces and Bazin had six kills, two blocks and one ace.
Setter Chelsea Hudson had 38 assists.
Trinity Western, which is tied for third in the CIS rankings, faces top-ranked UBC in a Canada West semifinal on Friday.
The other semifinal matches fifth-ranked Alberta (14-6) and third-ranked Winnipeg (14-6).
During the last week of regular season play, Trinity Western (13-7) and UBC (18-2) split their two matches.
