LANGLEY, British Columbia – Led by fourth-year Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 13 kills, six digs, and two aces the No. 8 Trinity Western Spartans swept the MacEwan Griffins 3-0 Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-22, 25-17, 25-17 win moves the Spartans to 13-8, while the loss drops the Griffins to 0-21.
Third-year middle Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) with nine kills, and four blocks, and second-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with eight kills, three digs, two aces, and two blocks also had good matches for the Spartans. Mitchel Gorman and Owen Johnson with six kills were the top offensive players for the Griffins.
TWU third-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) finished with 38 set assists, while MacEwan’s setter Alexander Lyndon finished with 13 set assists for the Griffins.
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans and Griffins were even to start with TWU leading 9-8 in the opening set. But a 7-3 run put the Spartans up 16-11 midway through the set. The Griffins cut the lead to one point, 20-19, after an 8-4 run. But MacEwan got no closer in the set, as TWU took the opening set 25-22. TWU hit at .344 (17-6-32), while MacEwan hit at .190 (8-4-21).
In the second set, TWU led 9-7 and then took over to lead 16-12 at the midway point. The Spartans continued to roll through the end of the set to take a 2-0 lead with a 25-17 second set win. The Spartans hit at .280 (12-5-25), while the Griffins hit at -.059 (3-4-17).
The final set was even to the 11-11 mark. But from there the Spartans were able to double-up each of the Griffins points to take the second set 24-17 and the match 3-0. In the final set, the Spartans hit at .375 (13-4-24), while the Griffins hit at .154 (8-4-26).
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“I thought in system and our medium system offence was great. I don’t think that we served very well and looking back I thought that we could have been a lot cleaner in highball, which is something that we need to upgrade for tomorrow. Anselm stuck to the game plan throughout the game. We talked about how good teams don’t get bored with the simplicity of success. The scheme was easy to execute today it is just hard to efficiently execute it.”
NOTABLE
TWU finished the night hitting at .506 (42-15-81), while MacEwan finished at .109 (19-12-64).
The Griffins finished the night out blocking TWU 7-4, while the Spartans had an 8-1 edge in service aces.
TWU had 26 digs, while MacEwan had 20.
Last week the Spartans split with the No. 7 UBC Thunderbirds in a home-and-home series, winning 3-1 on Thursday night in Langley, B.C., and losing 3-2 on Friday night in Vancouver, B.C.
Last week MacEwan was swept 3-0 both nights by the Alberta Golden Bears at home in Edmonton, Alta.
The Spartans are 15-0 lifetime against the Griffins.
The last time the Spartans lost a set to the Griffins was a 3-1 win on December 1, 2017, in Edmonton, Alta.
TWU has currently won 27 straight sets against MacEwan.
This week the Spartans’ third-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) was named Canada West and U SPORTS male volleyball player of the week. Rempel had 48 kills against UBC last weekend, including a career-best 26 kills in the 3-2 loss Friday night.
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Griffins will finish the two-match series tomorrow afternoon at the Langley Events Centre. Match time is set for 6 p.m. (PT) can be seen live on Canada West 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.