SPARTANS GET SWEEP OVER SCRAPPY GRIFFINS

LANGLEY, British Columbia –The No. 8 Trinity Western Spartans finished their 2023-24 Canada West home season with a 3-0 victory over a determined MacEwan Griffins Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-20, 25-22, 26-24 win moves the Spartans to 14-8, while the loss drops the Griffins winless at 0-22.  The Spartans’ attack from the end line was the difference in the match as TWU finished with 12 aces and 13 errors, while MacEwan finished with zero aces and 12 errors.

Fourth-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 12 points, five digs, and two aces, and second-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with nine kills, five aces, and five digs led the Spartans. Owen Johnson with 10 kills, and Mitchel Gorman with nine kills, and five digs led the Griffins.
TWU third-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) finished with 32 set assists, while MacEwan’s setter Alexander Lyndon finished with 24 set assists for the Griffins.

AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans and Griffins were even early in the first set. MacEwan was able to take a 14-11 lead midway through the set. But TWU responded to tie the set at 14-14 after Rempel and third-year middle Jackson Corneil (Surrey, B.C.) blocked MacEwan’s Owen Johnson. TWU took control of the set and after a Rempel kill led 20-16. From there TWU played side out ball to take the first set 25-20. The Spartans hit at .038 (11-10-26), while the Griffins hit at .000 (6-6-22).
 
The second set was even again to the 12-12. But a 7-1 run, capped by a Schmidt ace put TWU up 19-13. MacEwan battled back and cut the TWU lead to two points, 24-22 after a Johnson kill. But the Spartans Schmidt finished off the set 25-22 to give TWU a 2-0 lead. TWU hit at .259 (13-6-27), while MacEwan hit at .148 (11-7-27).
 
The third set was MacEwan’s best of the night. The Griffins took control early leading 8-4, and 16-11, and looked like they were going to force a fourth set and take their first set off of the Spartans. After Aidan McLennan put MacEwan up 19-14 TWU turned their game around. The Spartans took the next five points to tie the set at 19-19. The two teams then played side-out ball to 24-24. TWU third-year middle Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) then put the Spartans up 25-24 with a middle attack, before third-year outside Aaron Elser (Calgary, Alta.) closed out the match fittingly with TWU’s final service ace. The Spartans hit at .138 (11-7-29), while the Griffins hit at .148 (11-7-27).
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“Our serving saved us tonight. So to win the terminal serve battle was huge for us. To be in at 82 percent is awesome. That was the biggest difference tonight and why we were able to win in three. Offensively we struggled. It was one of our least efficient offensive matches of the year. And our struggles were in all areas. Sometimes it was attack decisions sometimes it was attack execution, and sometimes it was set decisions and locations. We saw our offensive flaws in every area tonight and it really hurt us. And that is so correlated to scoring and winning. It was just so hard to get going tonight.”
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night hitting at .146 (35-23-82), while MacEwan finished at .173 (30-17-75).
• The Griffins finished the night out blocking TWU 11-9.
• TWU had 21 digs, while MacEwan had 19.
• The .145 hitting percentage is the second-lowest of the season for TWU. In a 3-1 win over Manitoba on January 12 the Spartans hit at .111.
• The Spartans beat the Griffins 3-0 Friday night.
• The Spartans are 16-0 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 30 straight sets against MacEwan.
• This week the Spartans’ fourth-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 will now head to Calgary for the final conference games of the season. TWU will take on the Calgary Dinos on Friday, February 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, February 17 at 6 p.m. (MT) 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.
 
-TW-