NO. 2 SPARTANS FALL TO THUNDERBIRDS

VANCOUVER – The No. 2-ranked Trinity Western Spartans lost for the first time in the regular season, dropping a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-16) decision against UBC Friday at War Memorial Gym. 

The Thunderbirds improved to 7-4 on the season with what stands as their first regular season win over the Spartans since Jan. 25, 2019. TWU, who is now 8-1, had previously won six straight regular season contests with the ‘Birds. 

With a strong serving game, which saw UBC own a 9-2 advantage in aces, UBC was largely in control of the match from start to finish. Forced to play out of system much of the night, TWU had just a .154 attacking percentage compared to UBC’s .438. 

Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.) had a team-high 10 kills, while Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) added nine kills. 

UBC was led offensively by Matt Neaves, who had 14 kills while hitting .684. 

QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer – Interim Co-Head Coach
“We got beat by a team who was a lot better than us tonight. The good thing is hopefully we can put together a plan to be better than them tomorrow. 

“We broke on our serve receive. We either got aced or overpassed. We didn’t have the chance to create plays. I also don’t know if we approached that match with the appropriate attention to detail that it needed. 

“We see serves like that quite often. When it’s from a different player, it’s going to be slightly different but there’s nothing about that speed that we haven’t seen before. We just weren’t good enough today. 

“We have to find a way to manage their serves and we also need to show a lot more toughness and togetherness to compete against a team like that.” 

NOTABLE
•    The three-set loss marked only the second time in TWU history they have taken a 3-0 loss in the regular season against UBC. The only other 3-0 loss in the regular season against UBC was Feb. 2, 2007. 
•    All told, TWU has only lost to UBC in three sets four times in program history. 

UP NEXT
TWU and UBC play the back half of their home-and-home series Saturday at the Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m. (PT).

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, as well as women’s and men’s disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 31 Canada West team championships.

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