Trinity Western's quartet of fifth-year veterans (left to right) Tessa Needham, Sarah Buckingham, Tessa Ratzlaff and Jessie Brown look to keep their senior seasons alive when the Spartans face UNBC to open the 2019 Canada West playoffs Friday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

With ‘Fighting For Friday’ their refrain, TWU Spartans put Canada West season on line in sudden-elimination clash with UNBC

LANGLEY — It started out as the worst of times, it finished as the best of times. And now, after closing out their Canada West regular schedule with a game that serves as the perfect microcosm of their maddeningly inconsistent campaign, have the Trinity Western Spartans women’s basketball team shown enough to suggest that the playoffs […]

If you had to peek especially hard on the court to notice Sarah Buckingham in past seasons, all of that has changed for the fourth-year TWU Spartans' guard this season. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2018. All Rights Reserved)
Trinity Western head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul enters her ninth season at the helm of Spartans' basketball, and fifth-year forward Tessa Ratzlaff will play her biggest role yet in the fortunes of a program which last season sat on the cusp of national tourney qualification. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of TWU athletics)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Trinity Western women’s basketball: A taste of March Madness gives Spartans a new recipe for success

LANGLEY — The date and the stakes were not lost on anyone within the world of Trinity Western women’s basketball. Yes, for the first time ever, a game in the month of March. And with it, a last-ditch shot to qualify for the U Sport Final 8 championships.

After being recruited out of tiny Single-A school Cedars Christian in Prince George, forward Kayla Gordon could leave Trinity Western as its all-time leading scorer in Canada West regular-season play. (Scott Stewart, Trinity Western athletics)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Kayla Gordon: From a coach’s intuition to her career fruition, TWU’s tiny-school recruit anchors Spartans’ hoop success

LANGLEY — You can’t realize your vision without first trusting your gut, and it was with that in mind that Cheryl Jean-Paul pondered everything about a unique package of talent she had suddenly found herself studying back in the summer of 2012.