SPARTANS FALL TO BRANDON BOBCATS IN HOME OPENER

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 3 Trinity Western Spartans didn’t have answers as they lost their home opener 3-1 to the visiting Brandon Bobcats Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-21, 25-22, 15-25, 25-22 loss, the first of the year for the Spartans, drops TWU to 1-2 in Canada West conference play and 9-1 overall, while the win moves Brandon to 1-0 in CW and 5-4 overall.
 
Third-year outside John Obi (Winnipeg, Man.) with 12 kills, four digs, and one block, and second-year outside Piers De Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 10 kills, three blocks, and two digs led the Spartans, while Philipp Lauter with 12 kills, six digs, and four blocks, and Riley Grusing with 10 kills, six digs, and four blocks led the Bobcats.
 
Fourth-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartan attack with 35 set assists to go with four digs, and two blocks. While his counter part with Brandon J.J. Love finished with 30 set assists, and four digs for the Bobcats.
 
UP NEXT
The weekend series will wrap up Saturday evening at 6 p.m. (PT) at the Langley Events Centre. The game can be seen live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU head coach Adam Schriemer
“I loved our defense plan overall. But in the fourth set, we really lost our service pressure, so when, you are playing a team is good as Brandon, who are in system a lot, they’re going to be hard to beat. But I thought in the first few sets are service pressure, combined with our block the plan was really good, and we were hard to score against.”
 
“I think the biggest lesson from tonight is we weren’t in a state, mentally, emotionally, where we were ready to compete for two and half hours in the Canada West. We have talked about it all year. Winning, playing and competing in the Canada West is hard, and if you’re not ready to go and you spot a team like Brandon two sets, you’ll never be able to recover. And that’s exactly what happened tonight.”
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The first two sets were all Brandon’s to start. The Bobcats only hit at .094 (7-4-32) and .150 (9-6-20) but it was enough to better the Spartans who only hit at .000 (8-8-29), and (7-7-25) in the opening two sets, 25-21, and 25-22, and as such found themselves down 2-0.
 
TWU showed what they were capable of in the third set, winning 25-15. The Spartans dominated the set hitting at an impressive .588 (12-2-17) to the Bobcats .100 (9-7-20), to cut the set deficit to 2-1.
 
The Spartans looked to force a fifth set, but the Bobcats were able to get an extended lead late in the set, 22-18, and despite a late push TWU was unable to catch Brandon as the Bobcats took the set 25-22 and the match 3-1. TWU hit at .320 (12-4-25), while Brandon hit at .375 (12-3-24).
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans finished the night hitting at .189 (39-21-95) while the Bobcats hit at .177 (37-20-96).
• Both teams had six service aces, while Brandon had a 33-30 edge in digs
• The Bobcats also had the lead in blocks at 10-6.
• Trinity Western was ranked No. 2 in the Canada West preseason coaching poll, while Brandon was ranked No. 7.
• The Spartans are 33-17 lifetime against the Bobcats.

 
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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