LANGLEY, B.C. – After dropping a tight first set, Trinity Western put together a dominant performance in the next three sets to beat Fraser Valley 3-1 (24-26, 25-10, 25-18, 25-18) Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
The Spartans offence found their groove Saturday, hitting .409 as a team, as setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) delivered a tidy performance with 41 assists to guide the TWU attack. Rein also contributed a match-high six aces.
The win sees the Spartans and Cascades split their season-opening weekend, after UFV took a four-set on Friday.
Henry Rempel (Swift Current, B.C.) and Kaden Schmidt (Mississaugua, Ont.) led TWU with 18 and 14 kills respectively. Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) had six blocks to lead from the middle, while libero Tayler Roxburgh (Langley) had a match-high 11 digs.
UFV’s Jonas Van Huizen had eight kills and Ryan Hampe added seven kills, while Max Paddock had a team-high 26 assists.
The Spartans block owned the net all night, earning 11 blocks to UFV’s two. TWU also had a 12-8 advantage in aces.
AS IT HAPPENED
After UFV took the first set late, the match turned the Spartans way in emphatic fashion in the second set. TWU hit .556 and committed just one attacking error in the set while holding UFV to a -.059 hitting percentage and just four kills. From there, TWU continue to find its way offensively, hitting .500 in the third set and .324 in the fourth and final set. After the first set when UFV collected 12 kills, the visitors never hit double-digits in kills in any of the final three sets.
QUOTABLE Adam Schriemer – TWU Head Coach
“In our meeting today, we talked about how we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves this season and tonight would be an example of we respond to a match that we weren’t proud of yesterday. I thought it was really cool to see the upgrades and adjustments that we talked about in our video game plan meeting came to fruition. Overall, we were better in every phase of the game. I thought that was the best game of Anselm’s career. I thought he was the best player on the floor tonight. He was on time and on target offensively and he stuck to the script and he was the best server tonight. Tayler Roxburgh was a highlight defensively. He made incredible on-ball plays and helped us gain the advantage in transition.
“I think we learned what we are capable of. The challenge is being at that type of level consistently. It’s not the high end that we’re worried about. It’s the raising of the bottom level that we focus on.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans are now 9-1 all-time against UFV.
• The Spartans are 7-4 so far in 2023-24, including preseason.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will travel to play the University of Winnipeg Oct. 27-28.
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 and women’s and men’s disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 33 Canada West team championships.