WINNIPEG, Manitoba – The Trinity Western Spartans were unable to hold onto a 2-0 lead as the Winnipeg Wesmen rallied for a 3-2 win over the visiting Spartans Saturday night at Duckworth Centre in Winnipeg, Man. The 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 27-25, 15-11 Wesmen win gives them a weekend sweep of the Spartans and improves their record to 3-1, while the loss drops TWU to 1-3 on the season.
Fourth-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 23 kills, four blocks, and three aces, rookie outside Piers de Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 12 kills, and nine digs, and second-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 11 kills, three aces, and seven digs led the Spartans. Isaiah Olfert with 18 kills, and six digs, and Liam Kristjanson with 12 kills, and nine blocks led the Wesmen. TWU’s third-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) finished with 49 set assists, to go with three aces and two blocks, while his setting counterpart Alex Krykewich finished with 53 assists for Winnipeg.
QUOTABLE TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
“Before the game, we talked about how we have to approach the game in a better mindset and be prepared to play a good team on the road. I’m happy that we were ready to go right from the start. But as the match went on it was just two good teams making good plays.”
“I thought we did a lot better on the serve-pass game than we did yesterday. Late in the fourth and the fifth, we had opportunities to make plays, but Winnipeg just made a few more plays than we did, which was the difference tonight. Credit to Winnipeg, they are an awesome team and you have to play well to beat them”.
NOTABLE
The Spartans finished the night hitting at .246 (54-22-130), while the Wesmen hit at .286 (63-23-140).
TWU had a 13-7 edge in service aces, while Winnipeg had a 13-8 edge in total blocks.
The Spartans open the season ranked No. 3 in the CW annual coaches’ poll, while the Wesmen opened at No. 5.
Last week Trinity Western split with Fraser Valley losing and winning 3-1 in Langley, B.C.
Last week Winnipeg split with UBC Okanagan, winning 3-1 and losing 3-0 in Kelowna, B.C.
The Spartans are 43-20 lifetime against the Wesmen.
Prior to this weekend the last time TWU lost to Winnipeg was 3-1 on February 17, 2017, 13 matches.
UP NEXT
Next week the Spartans are at home to host the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday, November 3 and Saturday No Match times on Friday and Saturday are set for 7 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre. 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.