SPARTANS LEAVE EDMONTON AFTER SPLIT WITH THE BEARS

EDMONTON, Alberta – The No. 2 Alberta Golden Bears reversed the tables on the No. 9 Trinity Western and earned a 3-1 victory over the Spartans Saturday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alta. The 17-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 loss drops the Spartans to 4-4, while the win moves the Golden Bears to 5-3.

First-year outside Piers de Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 12 kills, eight digs, and three blocks, and fourth-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 12 kills, and four digs led the Spartans, while Isaac Heslinga with 17 kills, and Grayden Wiebe with eight kills, four blocks, and two aces led the Bears.

AS IT HAPPENED
The visitors struggled to contain errors in the contest, making eight reception errors to Alberta’s three as well as adding 21 and 20 attacking and service errors respectively.

They got off to a good start on the back of the phenomenal net defence, blocking four total Bears attacks for points and holding the hosts to just a .083 hitting percentage. They would take the first frame 25-17.

From the second set on, however, it would be mostly Alberta impressing as they swept sets 2-4. Heslinga got seven kills in the second set to recapture the momentum, then four different Bears got multiple kills in the third to display a deep offensive attack. In the last frame, they showed stout defence against the Spartans holding them to a -.160 hitting percentage helped undoubtedly by four blocks from the front line. With the 25-19 fourth-set victory, the Bears took the match and a leg-up in the early conference standings.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“I think the biggest thing tonight is understanding how each phase of the game is connected. We really struggled with serve receive and for that reason, we struggled offensively and we couldn’t put enough pressure on them with our serve, which allowed their offence to be really effective. The reality is Alberta was much better than us in every skill and phase tonight and we weren’t tough and hard to play against. One bright spot was Piers. Just over six months ago, Piers had surgery on his knee and he was the best player for us this weekend. It was really cool to see a freshman play that well in a really tough environment.”
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night hitting .185 (38-21-92), while Alberta finished hitting .253 (40-16-95)
• The Spartans had a 29-24 edge in digs, while the Bears had the edge in Aces 8-3, and 9-8 in blocks.
• The Spartans are 35-65 lifetime against the Bears.
• Last night the Spartans defeated the Bears 3-1.
• In their last meeting, before this weekend, at the 2023 CW championship, the Spartans lost to the Bears 3-1.
• The last time TWU defeated Alberta was 3-1 on March 19 in the 2022 CW championship.

UP NEXT
The Spartans will have a week off before hosting the Saskatchewan Huskies on November 24-25. Match times at the LEC are set for 7 p.m. and 6 p.m. (ET) and 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.
 
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