EDMONTON – The No. 4 Trinity Western Spartans settled for Canada West silver as they dropped a four-set battle to the No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alta. The 25-11, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22 win gives the Bears their first Canada West time since 2014-15 and sends them to next week’s U SPORTS championship as the No. 1 seed. Trinity Western, who were going for their third straight Canada West title, also advance to the national championship as a Canada West finalist.
Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.) with 24 kills, and Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with nine kills and six digs led the Spartans. Jordan Canham with 13 kills, and Isaac Heslinga with 12 kills led the Golden Bears. TWU’s Mathias Elser (Calgary) finished with 32 set assists, three service aces, and six digs while running the Spartans’ attack. While Cam Kern finished with 43 assists for the Bears. TWU’s Tayler Roxburgh (Langley, B.C.) led all players with nine digs.
QUOTABLE Adam Schriemer – TWU Co-Interim Head Coach
“First off, I’m really proud of our guys. We talked about going into someone else’s gym in a playoff environment and that you have to be really tough and really together. I thought we did that throughout the whole game. Going into the game, we talked about it being a battle of terminal serve and I think that was exactly it. Both teams served so aggressively, but I thought we broke one too many times and that might have been the difference. It’s never easy losing a championship game, but the exciting part is we still have another weekend and I think if we do a few things, we could be in a cool spot.”
Brock Davidiuk – Alberta Head Coach
“We talked a lot about it this week about how much we value the conference title and it’s something we evaluated a lot over the last few years. It’s been a few years of us really battling and wanting to win this thing, because it means a lot.”
“It was the Spartans who taught us that. When they beat us in the 2020 conference final, we watched the video of how they responded and how they reacted when they won, and we saw how much it meant to them to win that. We needed to be at that level at this point in the season.”
“One of the advantages of playing in the Canada West conference is there are so many teams that aren’t going to let you take your foot off the gas. We have to be bold enough and know how to play in close sets, because that’s the type of game you’re in this time of year.”
“They have such a strong team, and there has been a lot of respect and a lot of court battles over the years with these two programs, and tonight there was some very high level volleyball played between us.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are 34-64 lifetime, and 13-45 in conference play against the Bears. TWU and Alberta are 5-5 in their last 10 match-ups.
• This was Alberta’s first Canada West championship title since 2015, when they beat TWU 3-1.
• TWU has been in the Canada West final seven of the last seven years, and have won five championship banners over that time.
• Since 2011-12 TWU has won six Canada West championships, while Alberta has won three. In the last 11 seasons, TWU has captured six gold medals and five silver medals.
• TWU finished the night hitting at .271 (44-18-96), while Alberta finished at .310 (51-15-116).
• The Bears also had the edge in service aces at 11-4, while the Spartans had the edge in digs at 39-26. Both teams had 10 total blocks.
• Trinity Western advanced to the Canada West final with a 2-0 series win over Calgary, while Alberta advanced with a 2-0 series win over Saskatchewan.
• TWU finished the season No. 3 in CW at 18-6, while Alberta finished No. 1 at 22-2.
UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Bears are heading to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. for the U SPORTS championships. The eight-team tournament begins Friday, March 17, 2023.
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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