LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No.9 Trinity Western Spartans and the No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears, two of the perennial powerhouse programs in U SPORTS, fashioned another classic battle with the Spartans prevailing 3-2 in the five-set match. The Spartans took the first two sets, 25-23, 25-13, with the Bears forcing a fifth set with two 25-22 set wins before TWU took the final set 15-13 and the match.
Third-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 20 kills, six digs, and three aces, second-year outside Piers De Greef (Victoria, B.C.) with 16 kills, eight digs, and fourth-year middle Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) with 11 blocks, and four kills led the Spartans. Isaac Heslinga with 19 kills, and four digs, and Dylan Martens with 13 kills, six digs, and four blocks led the Golden Bears.
Fourth-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartans with 39 set assists, while Luke Weddell finished with 37 assists for the Golden Bears.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will look to earn a split with the Golden Bears when they match up again tomorrow night at the LEC. Game time is set for 6 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Canada West TV.
QUOTABLE Trinity Western Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“I think at the start of the game we were really happy with how we executed our plan. That’s the best our block defense has ever looked all year. Heslinga is one of the best spikers that U SPORTS has probably ever seen. He’s that good, But we had a really good handle on him. I know he can play better, but what we did with him was huge. And then going into this game, we talked about that in games you don’t reduce errors, you respond from errors. During the week we’ll work on reducing errors and playing cleaner. But right now we just have to get in that game mindset and when we’re playing great we got to move on, and when we are not playing great, we got to move on. We did that today, especially Kaden in the first set, he ended with missing a serve, getting boxed in a pipe, and missing a high ball, and then he ended the game with a right side bomb, two elite serves, and then a pipe kill.”
“Really happy with the second set when we were really clicking, you can really see how dangerous this group could be. Just got to find a little more consistency. They started playing a little bit better as the match went on. And we kind of said, hey, this is what we expected, this is the Alberta we thought we would get. When you go against Alberta, you prep for five sets whether it’s 0-2, or 2-0, or 1-1, that’s just what you prep for. So how you get to that fifth set can always change, but you plan for it. They were good at it today, and our guys were good at it.”
About getting the win after a few tough matches.
“That’s one of the things we’re talking about is what’s the story you’re telling yourself? Like the wolf you feed is the wolf that survives. Are you feeding the wolf of, oh no, we’ve lost 18 straight sets: lost in California, we got swept in Manitoba. Or are you feeding the wolf of we have to stick to the process. We have to get better at the things we have to get better at. So that was nice, we needed a win. We’re happy with it.”
AS IT HAPPENED
The opening set was even early and tied at 9-9. The Spartans looked like they had broken open the set with a 4-0 run to take a 15-11 lead but the Bears roared back and cut the lead to one point trailing 16-15. The set was tight to the end when TWU’ De Greef made the final kill to give the Spartans the opening set 25-23.
The Spartans carried the momentum into the second set and quickly jumped out to a seven point lead, 12-5. The strong play continued for TWU as they extended their lead to 11 points, with an 8-4 run to lead 20-9. The Bears were unable to cut the lead as the Spartans took the second set 25-13 and a 2-0 set lead.
Alberta fully reversed the third set as they had the upper hand for the majority of the set. With the set tied at 7-7, the Golden Bears outpointed the Spartans 10-3 to take a 17-10 lead after a Heslinga kill. The Spartans rallied to cut the lead to two points, 22-20, after a De Greef kill but were unable to even the set as Alberta cut the set deficit in half with a 25-22 win.
The fourth set was tight throughout. From being tied 12-12, neither team had more than a two-point lead. But with the teams tied at 22-22 the Bears were able to take the final three points. And after a service ace by Dylan Martens Alberta had prevailed 25-22 to even the match at 2-2.
The final set was back and forth with each team taking a small one-point lead and then having the set tied. The set saw 12 ties in the first 24 points. Then with the match tied at 12-12 TWU took two straight points to lead 14-12. After two side-outs the Spartans Schmidt finished off the match with a cross-court kill to give TWU the set 15-13 and the match 3-2. NOTABLE
The Spartans finished the night hitting at .225 (47-22-111), while the Pandas finished at .171 (49-27-129).
TWU out-blocked Alberta 15-12
The Beats had the edge in service aces 7-5.
The Spartans started the season 4-1 in CW and went 3-5 over the last eight matches before tonight’s win.
The Golden Bears’ lone loss in CW conference play before tonight was 3-1 to the Brandon Bobcats on November 29 in Brandon, Alta.
The Spartans are currently 36-69 lifetime against the Golden Bears.
TWU is 2-3 over the last five Canada West conference matches with the Bears.
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women’s and men’s soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country, and track & field, as well as women’s rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men’s rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
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