EDMONTON – Trinity Western opened the 2024-25 Canada West regular season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-15) win over MacEwan at the at the David Atkinson Gymnasium.
Piers De Greeff (Victoria) led TWU with 10 kills, while John Obi (Winnipeg0 had nine in the win for the Spartans.
Setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) had 29 assists to go with a match-high six aces. Jackson Corneil (Surrey, B.C.) had five kills to go with two blocks. First-year Ben Brandsma (Abbotsford, B.C.), who made his Spartan debut at libero, had four digs.
As a team, TWU hit .211 while holding MacEwan to .053.
The Spartans had a strong game from the service line, earning 12 aces to MacEwan’s two.
Including preseason, TWU is 8-0 to start the season.
TWU is now 17-0 all-time against the Griffins since their first meeting in 2014-15 after MacEwan joined Canada West.
QUOTABLE Adam Schriemer, TWU Head Coach
“Before the game we talked with the group that as we start conference play, every point earned and every set won and every match won in Canada West is a big deal, especially on the road. So we’re super excited and happy to get our first win of the year. Anselm was pretty awesome offensively. He created a lot of space and then stayed on schedule offensively. I thought John was pretty spectacular from the service line late in the match and he was able to be pretty efficient with some high volume. I think the biggest thing we have to get better at is our attacking efficiency. I thought we were organized and created a lot of opportunities for us to score, but we just didn’t execute a number of them in the spiking phase. So we could be a little bit cleaner with our offensive errors and I think that can help us a lot going into to our match tomorrow. Overall, I’m really happy to get our first win in the Canada West conference.”
UP NEXT
TWU and MacEwan will play the rematch Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (MT). The Spartans will then return home for their home-opening weekend Oct. 25-26 against Brandon at the Langley Events Centre.
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 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 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.