LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western's men's volleyball team hit their home court at the Langley Events Centre on Friday to emphatically defeat Thompson Rivers 3-0 (25-9, 25-15, 25-16).
 
It was a well-rounded match put forth by the Spartans (1-0) who stifled the visiting Wolfpack (0-1) throughout the entire match, holding them to a total of 40 points as opposed to TWU's 75 points scored.
 
The Spartans handled the first set with ease as the starting group was headlined by a strong performance by Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.) who put down six of his ten kills in the first set.
 
TWU continued to roll in the second and third sets, mixing in various players to eventually take home their first win at the Langley Events Centre since winning the Canada West gold medal on Mar. 7^th, 2020.

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NOTABLE

• Mathias Elser (Calgary) played an incredibly well-rounded game on Friday. The second-year setter doubled as an offensive threat while Derek Epp (Saskatoon) was the team's primary setter. Elser posted 13 assists while completing two of his own kills.
• Jordan Schnitzer (Surrey, B.C.) was perfect on his attacks tonight. The fourth-year middle completed five successful kills on five attempts throughout his three sets of play in Friday's game.
• The Spartans have now won seven home openers in a row, with their last home opening loss coming against UBC on Oct. 25^th, 2013.
• Friday's match saw four first-year feature in the match as Tate Calles (Anacortes, Washington), Liam Remple (Vernon, B.C.), Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.), and Jackson Corneil (Surrey, B.C.) earned their first Canada West appearances.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
"We asked the guys all week to play clean, and play the way that they have trained; I thought they did that.
 
"They were fired up to play in front of their friends, family, and the 300 after 18 months. You could see that they really wanted to make the most of it, they were so focussed. Commonly, people will start to slide mentally, but I don't think they did. They held a really good focus throughout the match. Thompson Rivers got better throughout the match but the guys stayed dialled in, and handled themselves like professionals.
 
"It was a surgical match. They didn't leave much space for their opponents to breathe. That's the way to start the season."
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans are back at the Langley Events Centre to play TRU tomorrow at 6 p.m.

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-