CALGARY – The No. 2 Trinity Western Spartans rallied twice to win a marathon five set match over the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday night at Kenyon Court in Calgary. The 25-22, 22-25, 33-31, 25-27, 15-11 victory keeps TWU as the only unbeaten team in Canada West at 8-0, while the loss drops the No. 5 Cougars to 5-3.
Jesse Elser (Calgary) led the Spartans with 19 kills on the night, combining with Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.) and Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) who combined for a total of 32 kills. Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartans in both assists (57) and digs (15) en route to TWU’s eighth victory of the year.
AS IT HAPPENED
The Cougars jumped to a 1-0 lead, winning 25-22 in the first set. TWU answered back with a 25-22 victory of their own in the second.
A lengthy third set resulted in a 33-31 set win for the Cougars before the Spartans rattled off two consecutive set victories in the fourth (27-25) and fifth (15-11), earning their eighth win of the season.
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“It was a really tough start to the game. We really struggled in the terminal serve area, so we gave up a lot of direct points. Once we cleaned that up we were able to build up possession through longer rallies, gaining us some more momentum. I thought we were really efficient offensively, but the challenge was getting in spots where we could use the creativity of our hitters. Anselm [Rein] did a really good job in finding all our guys tonight.
“Mount Royal is such a good team. They didn’t give us anything easy, and we had to earn all of our points. There are a lot of areas where we can improve coming off that performance, but we’re happy to get the sweep on the road against a really good team. On to UBC.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are now 27-7 lifetime against the Cougars. The Spartans have won 13 straight CW conference games against the Cougars.
• In the heavy weight battle Trinity Western finished the night hitting .416 (69-17-125), while Mount Royal finished at .385 (60-13-122).
• The Spartans had an impressive 42-28 edge in digs and a 7-3 advantage in service aces.
• The Cougars finished with a slight edge in team blocks at 6-5.
• TWU last lost to MRU, 3-2, in Canada West conference play on November 27, 2015 in Langley.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now head home for a home-and-home series with the UBC Thunderbirds on November 25, in Vancouver, and 26, Langley. Match times are set for 8 p.m. and 6 p.m. PT. Both games 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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.
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