SPARTANS SERVE THEIR WAY TO WIN

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans (15-1) set numerous program records in a dominant 3-0  (25-15, 25-17, 25-11) victory over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack (8-8) to open the Canada West post season Thursday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C.

Trinity Western broke the post season service aces record in the post season with 15 service aces in three sets, and also set records for attack percentage in three sets in the post season at .566 and Brodie Hofer set the Spartans record for service asses in a three set play-off match with seven.

Brodie Hofer with 10 kills, seven aces, and 17 points, Jesse Elser with six kills, four aces, five digs and 10.5 points and Jordan Schnitzer with six kills, five blocks and 10 points led the Spartans. While Samuel Elgert with four kills and Thundersky Walkingbe with three kills led the WolfPack.

AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans and WolfPack were even in the early part of the opening set. TWU took a 5-1 lead, but TRU rallied to tie the set at 5-5. The two teams exchanged points, then with TWU leading 9-8 the Spartans went on a 7-3 run to lead 16-11 at the technical break. From their TWU remained in control as they took the opening set 25-15. TWU finished the set hitting .350 (9-2-21), while TRU hit at .190 (9-5-21). The Spartans also had three blocks and seven aces, while the WolfPack had zero blocks and one ace.

Trinity Western carried their momentum in the second set as the Spartans quickly jumped out to a six point, 13-7, lead and forced the WolfPack into the early timeout. The two teams exchanged points to the technical break with the Spartans leading 16-11. The Spartans continued their strong serving to close out the set with a 25-17 win to take a 2-0 lead. TWU hit at an impressive .526 (13-3-19), while TRU struggled at .071 (5-4-14). The Spartans had five more aces and two more blocks to their totals. The WolfPack had zero blocks and zero aces in the set.

TWU dominated in the third set. The Spartans quickly jumped out to a six point, 8-2, lead, which they extended to eight points, 16-8, at the technical break. From there the Spartans never looked back as the finished the match with a 25-11 win. The Spartans finished the night with a dominating attack hitting at .929 (13-0-14), while the WolfPack hit at -.143. TWU finished the night hitting three more aces, while adding two more blocks. TRU again had zero aces and zero blocks in the set.

NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night hitting .566 (35-5-53), while TRU hit at .061 (16-13-49). The .566 breaks the TWU play-off record of .525, which the Spartans set in 2005 against the Saskatchewan Huskies at the U SPORTS national championship.
• Brodie Hofer’s seven service aces breaks Jesse Elser’s six set against Mount Royal 2,20,2020.
• The 15 service aces betters the Spartans previous play-off three set record of 13 aces, which they set against this same WolfPack team six years ago on February 13, 2015.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
“The guys had tons of juice tonight. We told them upstairs before the game every decision that we have made for pretty much a year and a half has been about playing good starting tonight and for the next month. And when we knew we didn’t have a Covid season we basically started prep for this month last January. And all the decisions that you make during the season are about being healthy and hot and have enough layers and enough tools in your tool box to play well on different nights and against different opponents. Every decision we have made for 18 months has been designed around playing well this month and this was a good start.”

“I thought our energy on the defensive phase was really good, our side out efficiency was really strong. I thought we let go of our errors really quickly and stayed really front loaded and took advantage. We were patient in our adjustments. We talked about winning the 30, and that is the 30 seconds between plays and the guys did a great job of sharing information and this is what they are doing and this is what we are going to do and then played it. It was all the non-volleyball things that we were really good at tonight. And that is what makes the difference in the play-offs.”

“Not happy about our serving misses. Aces are a result of your opponent not handling your serves, misses are about you not being focused. We control on how many serves we miss. We don’t control on how many aces we get. And if we worry about things we don’t control we will lose. We control the things we do control, like putting a ball in bounds, that’s what makes a great volleyball team. And we missed 20 serves, and our opponent has no bearing on that. It’s all on us and we have to be better than that. If they can’t pass and serve that is on them. But we can put serves in bounds at a higher rate than that.”

On third set hitting
“We have really good players. When we play at home we feel comfortable. When we feel comfortable we play with energy. When we have energy we have joy and when we have joy we make cool things happen.  And that is one of the reasons why home court advantage is so huge.”

UP NEXT
The Spartans will take on the Mount Royal Cougars tomorrow night in match number two of the opening Canada Wets round-robin play-offs.  Match time at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. is set for 8:30 p.m. The Spartans will play the Brandon Bobcats tomorrow night at UFV in Abbotsford, B.C. Match time is set for 8 p.m. PT. All matches can be seen live on Canadawest.tv.

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 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

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