LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western third year outside Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.) with 12 kills, and three aces led the No. 1 Spartans to a straight set, 3-0, victory over the UBC Thunderbirds Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The 25-23, 25-19, 25-16 victory improves the Spartans to 3-0, while the loss drops the No. 8 Thunderbirds to 2-1.
In addition to Hofer the Spartans were led by fourth year middle Jackson Howe (Calgary) and outside third year outside Jesse Elser (Calgary) with nine kills each. UBC’s Michael Dowhaniuk (Surrey, B.C.), Coltyn Liu (Vancouver), and Matt Neaves (Calgary) each had seven kills.
AS IT HAPPENED
The first set had the two teams match each other. A UBC service error and a service ace by the Spartans Jordan Schnitzer (Waterloo, Ont.) gave the Spartans the early 8-6 lead. TWU quickly took the next two points and forced UBC to take a timeout. The Thunderbirds regrouped to trail the Spartans 16-14 at the media timeout. Again the Spartans took control and after a Hofer ace led the Thunderbirds 19-14. After a UBC kill from Dowhaniuk the Thunderbirds had closed the gap to two points, trailing 20-18. UBC stayed with TWU and closed to within one point, 24-23, but a Thunderbird service error gave the Spartans the opening set 25-23. TWU hit .304 (12-5-23) in the set, while UBC hit an impressive .588 (11-1-17). The Spartans had four service aces to the Thunderbirds two.
The Spartans and Thunderbirds were even through the early points of the second set. But with TWU leading 12-10 the Spartans took control. TWU took four of the next five points to lead 16-11 at the media break. UBC were unable to gain any momentum in the second set as TWU took the set 25-19 for a 2-0 set lead. The Spartans hit .286 (11-5-21), while the Thunderbirds dropped to .150 (9-6-20).
In the final set the Spartans dominated the mid-point of the game. With a 6-5 lead, the Spartans would go on to out point the Thunderbirds 10-4 to take a 16-9 lead at the media break. Trinity Western continued to control the match and never allowed UBC into the set as the Spartans took the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.
NOTABLE
- TWU is now 54-23 lifetime against UBC in Canada West a U SPORTS competition.
- The Spartans and the Thunderbirds last met January 24 and 25, 2020 at UBC. TWU swept the weekend series 3-2 and 3-0.
- TWU finished the night hitting .375 (36-12-64), while UBC finished at .321 (28-10-56).
- The Spartans had nine aces with 13 errors, while the Thunderbirds had five with 18 errors.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
“Coming back from California a lot of what we have been prepping for is this huge weekend against a really good UBC team. A lot of what we were doing in California is trying to make sure we are ready to play a big time Canada West match and I think the guys did enough to win 3-0. Our high end was really good, but the bottom end was rough and that was the message. We just keep having this really great high end which we are sustaining for longer which is the nice part.”
“But undisciplined play, ball control errors and the amount of things that are under out control that we are not controlling is becoming problematic and it was there again tonight.”
“We had a nice lead in the first and we made five straight errors. We just kept bleeding points throughout that match and things that were under our control. Now UBC earned a bunch of points because they are great. But we bled a bunch of points because we were just undisciplined and those are the ones that are going to kill us. They didn’t tonight, so we are happy that we won, and that we won 3-0. But we are not happy with the undisciplined play.”
UP NEXT
TWU and UBC will match up again tomorrow evening, Saturday, November 27. Match time at the Langley Events Centre is set for 7 p.m. PT. The match 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.
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