SPARTANS FALL TO HOST GAELS IN FINAL PRESEASON MATCH

KINGSTON, Ontario – The Trinity Western Spartans lost in five sets to the host Queen’s Gaels to conclude the Smola Cup tournament at the Queen’s ARC in Kingston, Ont. The 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, and 15-12 loss drops the Spartans to 6-3 as they conclude the preseason part of the 2023-24 schedule.

Second-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 15 kills, four aces, and six digs, and first-year outside Piers de Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 14 kills, two aces, and six digs led the Spartans. Erik Siksna with 18 kills, six digs, and three aces, and Nikola Mitrovic with 11 kills and one ace led the Gaels.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“Really happy with our mindset and our consistency over a long five-set match which had both teams playing at a high level for a large portion of the game, which is the type of game that we have to get comfortable with. As always there are things we can upgrade. I thought as the match went on we made one too many attacking errors. And that might have been the difference.”
 
“Overall happy with our performance in the tournament, I think we are on the right track and we can get better as we head into conference play.”
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the afternoon hitting at .164 (49-31-110), while Queen’s hit at .164 (49-30-116).
• The Spartans finished with a 12-10 edge in blocks and a 10-6 edge in aces.
• Today’s match is the first time that the Spartans have lost to Queen’s. The Spartans are now 10-1 lifetime against the Gaels.

UP NEXT
The Spartans open up Canada West conference play on October 20-21 when they will host the Fraser Valley Cascades. Match times on Friday and Saturday are set for 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre. Both matches can be seen live on Canadawest.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.
 
-TW-