Langley’s Trinity Western UniversitySpartans dominant at Volleyball Showcase

A pair of B.C. teams, Langley’s Trinity Western University, and UBC Thunderbirds, dominated at the Volleyball Showcase in Langley.

Organized by The Volleyball Network, the event featured six of the premier women’s USPORTS volleyball programs, two Canadian women’s university programs apiece from B.C., Alberta and Ontario at the three-day event held October 14 to 16 at Langley Events Centre.

“The level of play was incredible, especially for the middle of October,” said Elie Shermer, creator and founder of the Volleyball Network.

While Shermer was happy with the competitiveness of each match, he said both the Thunderbirds and Spartans, the defending champions, showed just how strong they are.

Both the TWU and UBC teams finished with identical 3-0 records, with each team also dropping just a single set over those the course of those three games.

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Trinity Western’s women’s volleyball team, entering the year as the defending national and conference champions, opened the Volleyball Showcase with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-13) win over Alberta on Friday. The game was a rematch of last year’s Canada West championship, which the Spartans won.

Spartans closed with 3-0 wins over both the Waterloo Warriors (25-17,25-20,25-19) and Queen’s (25-23,25-20,25-12).

Following TWU’s win over the Warriors, where Spartan Emma Gamache was named player of the match, head coach Ryan Hofer, who is experimenting with the team lineup, had nothing but good things to say about their performance, pronouncing himself “really pleased.”

“We are still trying to figure out what the season is going to look like, and I feel that in order to go deep in this league, you can’t just have seven players,” Hofer said.

“We are trying to develop a team and give opportunity to players and figure out what our combination is going to look like and what is going to help us for the season.”

Thunderbirds were 3-0 winners over both the Queen’s Gaels (25-18,26-24,25-23) and Alberta Pandas (25-19,27-25,26-24) on the first two days before dropping their first set of the weekend on Sunday, only to close with three straight to defeat the Mount Royal Cougars 3-1 (20-25,25-15,25-23,25-23).

Mount Royal finished the weekend at 2-1 while Alberta was 1-2. Both Waterloo and Queen’s were 0-3.

For more information, visit www.volleyballshowcase.ca.