Spartans Sweep Heat to Remain Unbeaten

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans had a more efficient match Saturday night as they sweep the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-0 Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 34-32, 25-21, 25-17 win keeps TWU unbeaten at 8-0, while the loss drops the Heat to .500 at 4-4.

Brodie Hofer with 17 kills, seven digs, two aces, and 20 points, Isaiah Olfert with 11 kills and 11.5 points, and Jordan Schnitzer with 10 kills and 13.5 points led the Spartans attack. While Maxwell Heppell with nine points, seven kills, and six digs and Teo Ardanaz with six kills, seven blocks, and 10.0 points led the Heat’s attack.

AS IT HAPPENED
TWU and UBC-O opened the match with a marathon first set in which the Spartans fended off six set points before prevailing 34-32. The Heat had an early lead 11-6, but from the media timeout when UBC-O led 16-15 neither team had more than a two point lead, with the two teams being tied 16 times after the time-out. The Spartans hit for 25.0 percent (21-8-52), while the Heat hit for 14.7 percent (12-7-34). TWU’s Brodie Hofer finished the set with 8.5 points and eight kills, while UBC-O’s Ardanaz finished with five points and three kills.

The second set carried on from where the first set ended as the teams were tied at 12-12. The Spartans were able to get breathing room as they headed into the media break with a 16-13 lead. UBC-O closed the gap to trail 22-21, but TWU took the next three points to win the set 25-21. The Spartans hit at 18.2 percent (12-6-33) in the set, while the Heat finished at 10.7 percent (10-7-28). Trinity Western added four service aces to their attack in the second set, while UBC Okanagan had one. TWU’s Jordan Schnitzer led the Spartans in the second set with 5.5 points and five kills, while Maxwell Heppell led the Heat with three points and three kills.

As in the first two sets the set was tight early with the two teams tied at 13-13. As in the second set TWU again led 16-13 at the media break. Out of the break the Spartans expanded their lead to 21-17 before taking the final four points and the match 25-21. TWU hit at a much improved 30.8 percent (13-5-26), while UBC-O hit at 4.3 percent (7-6-23).

NOTABLE

• The Spartans are now (20-0) in Canada West play against the Heat.
• Starters missing from the TWU lineup due to COVID protocol: Jackson Howe, Jessie Elser, Derek Epp, Colton Loewen.
• TWU defeated UBC-O 3-2 (25-17, 25-21, and 21-25, 16-25, 15-11) in Friday night’s match.
• Brodie Hofer’s finished at 17-3-42 in attacking. His 42 attempts is the third highest attempts in Spartan history for a three set match. Former Spartan Ryan Sclater holds the record at 47 attempts in a three set loss against Saskatchewan on January 7, 2017.
• TWU finished the match hitting 24.3 percent (46-19-111), while UBC-O finished at 10.6 percent (29-20-85). The 111 attempts by the Spartans is the sixth most in TWU history in a three set match. The current record is 150, set February 4, 2000 in a 4-1 win over Regina.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
“There are two common volleyball situations that happen. They are really good at block defence and they are really structured, which makes them very hard to score against. So that is why we had so many attempts and so few kills and our efficiencies were so poor. There block defence is really hard to break down and they are really good in that faze.”

“The second thing that happened was when you steal a 34-32 win in the first set it is just human nature and really hard to recover. Both teams are gassed and the team that just won gets the natural lift and the team that lost has to battle their own brains to continue to play. So in the second set, we had a free boost that propelled us from the first and we got out to a good lead and that was that. And in the third set it is just hard for any team to think about coming back from 2-0 deficits again. And our guys did a much better job of leaning on them the whole time. We didn’t give up big runs and didn’t give them free points with errors in the third set like we did last night.”

“I thought we stayed on schedule tonight. Last night we got beyond our level to start and we played below our level in the middle and we found it in the end. And tonight we said let’s just stay on schedule, especially mentally and emotionally and let volleyball be volleyball. But don’t let your emotions change. Get better through the match, get more focused through the match. And tonight I think volleyball was volleyball, but they didn’t waiver from their focus and they got smarter and tighter as the match went on.”

“And the lesson tonight was can we stay on schedule and finish better then we started and tonight we did, but last night that was not the case. So good learning for a bunch of young kids, against a really good team especially in the block defence. It was tough sledding out there.”

UP NEXT
The Spartans will now head on the road for a weekend series against the UBC Thunderbirds. Match times at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver are set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, January 28 and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 29. 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 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

-TW-