LANGLEY, British Columbia – This week the No. 7 Trinity Western University men’s volleyball team will open the Canada West Final Four against the No.4 University of Calgary Dinos Saturday afternoon at noon at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The other semi-final will feature the No. 3 University of Alberta Golden Bears taking on the No. 9 Thompson Rivers University WolfPack at 2 p.m. With all four team having already qualified for the CIS championship next week at TRU in Kamloops, this weekend’s tournament will primarily serve as seeding for next week’s championship.



“I expect the match to be very competitive. Calgary has as well rounded and deep a roster as there is in our conference. They have two of the better setters and right sides and they use all four of them every match making them tough to match up against,” commented TWU head coach Ben Josephson. “They don't really have a weakness per say which is why they've finished second in the conference both the past two seasons. It will be a battle to put them off balance; we will have to pass the ball well to allow our offence to find isolation to score.”



The Spartans match with the Dinos will be a tightly contested contest based on the results of their two game series in November at the University of Calgary. The Spartans were able to get a road split with Dinos, falling 3-1 on the Friday night before recovering to win 3-1 on the Saturday night in the final match of the fall semester. In the series the Spartans were led by Marc Howatson of Victoria with 27 kills and 10 digs in the series and Steven Marshall of Abbotsford, B.C. who had 21 kills, six digs and two aces in the Saturday win. The Dinos responded with Curtis James who had 24 kills on the weekend, Omar Langford who had 10 kills in the win and Oleg Podporin who had 14 kills and six blocks in the Saturday loss.



“Calgary had both their right sides out for much of the season in Omar Langford and Graham Vigrass. They are both very dynamic players and even with them out they were able to win enough matches to finish second which speaks to their depth and systems. With these two back Calgary is very strong,” said Josephson.



The Spartans are in the top of Canada West in nearly every statistical category. TWU is first in kills with 12.85 kills per game and digs with 11.36 digs per game, third in hitting at 25.9 percent and assists at 11.88 assists per game and fifth in blocks with 2.29 blocks per game and service aces with 0.95 aces per game.



Calgary statistical sits in the middle of Canada West in most categories. They are third in kills with12.69 kills per game and fourth in blocks with 2.31 blocks per game and are fifth in hitting percentage at 25 percent, assists at 11.75 assists per game and digs at 9.79 digs per game. The Dinos excel in one statistical area, which is serving, where they led the conference with 1.31 service aces per game.



Graham Vigrass and James and Podporin are the leaders of the Dinos attack. Vigrass finished sixth in Canada West with 3.28 kills per game, while Podporin led Canada West in hitting at 45.3 percent, was third in aces with 0.33 aces per game and was eighth in blocks with 0.98 blocks per game. Defensively Calgary is led by Tom Porta with 2.28 digs per game and Ciaran McGovern with 1.65 digs per game. McGovern also runs the Dinos attack and finished averaging 8.11 set assists per game.



“Calgary is a great blocking team both individually and systematically. They run middle really well with two very talented middles including Oleg Podporin,” said Josephson.



On the Spartans side of the net: Trinity Western is led by Steve Marshall who was fourth in kills at 3.69 per game, seventh in digs with 2.26 digs per game and eighth in aces with 0.25 aces per game. Josh Doornenbal of Edmonton who was sixth in hitting at 39.2 percent, fifth in blocks with 1.08 blocks per game, leftside Marc Howatson who was 10th in digs with 1.97 digs per game, while hitting 2.63 kills per game, Ben Ball who was second in assists with 10.37 per game and libero Jarrod Offereins of Calgary who was sixth in digs with 2.29 digs per game.



“In our previous matches with Calgary they have made a concerted effort to stop our middles and Josh Doornenbal and Rudy Verhoeff will have to find ways of staying involved in our offence to keep their block honest and give opportunities for Paul Lindemulder, Marc Howatson and Steve Marshall,” said Josephson.



The Spartans earned their spot in the Final Four as a result of their two games to one series win over the No. 6 University of Winnipeg Wesmen last week at the Langley Event Centre in Langley, B.C., the Dinos advanced with their series sweep of the visiting No. 10 University of Manitoba Bisons, the WolfPack advanced with their two to one upset of the No. 5 Brandon University Bobcats in Brandon, while the host Golden Bears advance and host after winning the Canada West Conference.



“At the beginning of the season we had hoped to be in this Final Four competing for the conference championship against the best Canada West has to offer. We knew it would be a tough task to qualify and an even tougher task to do well there. But make no mistake though we are going to Edmonton with the hopes of winning the Blue Banner,” added Josephson. “It is not just a seeding tournament to us, it is the conference championship and while we would gladly trade a blue banner for a red one, they are both a part of our goal sequence. We are looking forward to the challenge of playing these four teams in our attempt to win our program's second conference championship.”



The final Canada West standings had the Golden Bears finishing first at 14-4, the Dinos finishing second at 13-5, the Spartans finishing fourth at 11-7 and the WolfPack finishing sixth at 10-8.

The Spartans, who are 9-3 life time in four CIS tournament appearances, have earned one gold in 2006, silver in 2005 and a bronze in 2004 and 2007, the last time that TWU was at the CIS championship was in 2007 when they finished third at McMaster University in Hamilton.



Trinity Western University, in Langley, B.C., is a provincially chartered, independent Christian liberal arts and sciences university, enrolling approximately 4000 students. TWU offers 42 undergraduate majors, ranging from biotechnology, education, theatre and music, to psychology, communications and biblical studies. TWU's 16 graduate degree programs include nursing, counseling psychology, business, theology, linguistics, and leadership, and interdisciplinary degrees in English, philosophy and history. TWU holds Canada Research Chairs in Dead Sea Scroll Studies, Developmental Genetics and Disease, and Interpretation, Religion & Culture.



-TW-





Scott Stewart

Sports Information Director

Trinity Western University

ssstew@twu.ca

604.513.2123 office

604.764.1533 cell

604.513.2065

Gospartans.ca