CALGARY – Trinity Western capped the East vs. West tournament with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-23) win over Laval Saturday afternoon at Kenyon Court at Mount Royal University.
Kaden Schmidt led the Spartans with a match-high 13 kills while hitting .346. Rookie left side Drew Vanhuizen and third-year middle Nathan Howden-Duke had seven kills apiece, with Vanhuizen hitting .417 and Howden-Duke hitting .750. Ben Pike had 27 assists and TWU hit .287 as a team. Second-year libero Isaac Navarro had a team-high nine digs.
Thomas Boccardi had a team-high 10 kills for the Rouge et Or.
TWU is 4-0 so far this year against Ontario and Quebec-based competition.
The Spartans are 11-2 all-time against Laval, including a 6-0 record in the national championship tournament.
QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer, TWU Head Coach
“I think this was a challenging game for some of our guys. I think there are some guys like Willem (Van Huizen), Isaac (Navarro) and Zach (Hofer) who played three games in a row, and that’s hard on the body. But I think it’s really important for those guys who are now key players on the court for our team to get more match experience and playing these games where you’re just required to do more because you’re role is increasing. So, I’m really happy with how they played this weekend. I thought Ben Pike was great today. He ran a really organized offence. I was really happy with our team in the third set. We were down for most of the third set and down 23-20 and then the group just found a bit of an energy and was able to close it out, which was awesome, considering that’s a hard game to do that in. Overall, I’m really happy with this East vs. West tournament. We have a lot of things that we can keep building off and we’re excited about our group. It’s been really fun to be a part of so far.”
UP NEXT
TWU will now prepare for the Blue Team Cup, which will be hosted at Mount Royal University, Oct. 15 (vs. UBC Okanagan), Oct. 16 (vs. UBC) and Oct. 17 (vs. MRU).
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 and women’s and men’s disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 15 U SPORTS team championships and 35 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 CIS 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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