LANGLEY, British Columbia – It looked like the No. 3 Trinity Western Spartans were going to be swept by the visiting Brandon Bobcats, but trailing 2-0 the Spartans found their game and took the last three sets to defeat the Bobcats 3-2. The 20-25, 18-25, 25-22, 28-26, 15-11 win improves TWU to 3-1, while the loss drops Brandon to 1-1.
Third-year outside John Obi (Winnipeg, Man.) with 16 kills, six digs, and one block, second-year outside Piers de Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 15 kills, seven digs, and one block, and third-year outside Kayden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 10 kills, and 10 digs led the Spartans. While Riley Grusing with 16 kills, five digs, and four blocks, Liam Pauls with 15 kills, three aces, and six digs, and Tom Friesen with 12 kills, eight digs, and four blocks led the Bobcats.
Third-year libero Tayler Roxburgh (Langley, B.C.) led the Spartans with 14 digs, while Tom Friesen led the Bobcats with eight.
Fourth-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartan attack with 49 set assists. While his counterpart with Brandon J.J. Love finished with 39 set assists for the Bobcats.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will have a week off before having a weekend home-and-home series with the UBC Thunderbirds November 8-9. Both matches can be seen live on Canada West TV.
QUOTABLE TWU head coach Adam Schriemer
“Full credit to Brandon. They’re one of the hardest teams to play against. They just were so steady for two days in a row. Every time you play Brandon, there’s a lot of lessons revealed by them, and we know a lot of areas where we have to get better at now.”
“The momentum started to change in the third set once Kayden had that coverage and then I thought Tayler, who struggled in reception tonight, but he just extended rallies defensively and he was really hard to play against, but Tayler’s was defensive intensity started to change the game for us. And our ability to dig balls and then start converting on a couple of those transition opportunities, really started to change the game.”
“I felt like this weekend was either really clean and no compete, or really ugly, but competing really high. I think our challenge is consistently competing, from start to match to the end of match, but also pairing that with executing at a slightly higher level. And that’s what we got to get better at after the bye week next week.”
AS IT HAPPENED
The Bobcats got early separation 7-5 in the opening set and never gave up the lead and finished the opening set strong to go up 1-0 with a 25-20 win. TWU hit a .074 (8-6-27) to start, while Brandon hit at .308 (11-3-26).
The second set was even until 16-16, then Brandon took over and finished off the set with a 9-2 run to go up 2-0 with the 25-18 second set win. TWU hit at .040 (8-7-25), while Brandon hit at .300 (9-3-20).
In the third set the Bobcats took an early 8-6 lead, and then used a 6-3 run to expand their lead to six points, 15-9. The Spartans worked to scramble back into the set and forced a Bobcat timeout with TWU trailing by three points, 16-13. TWU continued their run and tied the set at 18-18 with a 9-3 run. The Spartans continued to scramble and forced the Bobcats to a time out with TWU leading 21-19. The final points of the set were back and forth before TWU took the set 25-22. The Spartans hit at .324 (16-5-34), while the Bobcats hit at .273 (13-4-33).
The Spartans carried their momentum into the fourth set and quickly took an 11-6 lead. After a timeout Brandon clawed their way back into the set to tie the set at 15-15. The two teams played sideout ball to 23-23. Brandon got to match point on a kill 24-23 off of a TWU touch block. After a number of side-out balls and close calls TWU got to set point at 26-25. After a Brandon point, back-to-back kills by Obi gave TWU the set 28-26 and tied the match at 2-2. TWU hit at .296 (14-6-27), while Brandon hit at .357 (14-4-28).
In the final set TWU took the early 5-2 lead and pushed Brandon into a timeout. The Spartans expanded their lead to four points, 8-4, at the changeover. TWU continued to control the set and expanded their lead to five points, 13-8, and force Brandon into their last time out. Out of the break the Bobcats scored two straight points and the Spartans took a timeout with a 13-10 lead. Fittingly Obi ended the match for the Spartans to give TWU the 15-11 win and the match 3-2. The Spartans hit at .500 (9-2-14) in the final set, while the Bobcats hit at .200 (6-3-15).
NOTABLE
The Spartans finished the night hitting at .228 (55-26-127) while the Bobcats hit at .295 (53-17-122).
TWU had a 6-3 edge in aces, and 43-35 in digs.
The Bobcats had the lead in blocks at 12.5-5.5.
Trinity Western was ranked No. 2 in the Canada West preseason coaching poll, while Brandon was ranked No. 7.
The Spartans are 34-17 lifetime against the Bobcats.
The only time that the Spartans have been swept by the Bobcats was January 4-5, 2019 in Brandon, Man.
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.
About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.