LANGLEY, B.C. – Mathias Elser (Calgary) made nine aces as Trinity Western defeated Manitoba 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17) in their home opener at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night.
 
Alongside Elser's night at the service line, the Spartans (1-0) were led by a combined 29 kills from the outside-hitting trio of Jesse Elser (Calgary), Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.), and Brodie Hofer (Langley, B.C.). The Bisons (0-1) had a well-spread attacking night with Ben Carleton and Jonah Dueck leading the way with eight kills each.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
With the Bisons applying pressure at the beginning of the match, a combined serving run between Hofer and Mathias Elser led to a 23-12 lead. U of M clawed back, bringing their tally to 18 points before the Spartans closed the set at 25-18.
 
The Bisons were able to extend their pressure into the second set, taking a 25-22 set victory to tie the game up at 1-1.
 
TWU rolled in the next two sets, taking a 25-19 victory, then a 25-17 victory to wrap up the match.
 
NOTABLE
Adam Schriemer – Co-Interim Head Coach
"We talked about imposing our will on the game and playing smart volleyball heading into tonight. We didn't want to feel the game out – and I thought we did a good job of that in the first set, but we got away from some of the things we were trying to do at the end of the set. We didn't recover in the second set, so it didn't look like we were competing well, we weren't communicating well, and the flow of our game just felt off.
 
"We started to find it late in the third set and that carried into the fourth set. We started to serve really tough, so I definitely think we won the terminal serving battle. Other than that, I didn't think we were clean in a lot of phases – especially in our first ball transition offence. I think we need to clean up our transition, our first ball, and our serving errors.
 
"Credit to Manitoba, we talked about how they never go away, and they have really good players who play a steady game. They didn't let us get comfortable and put a lot of pressure on us.
 
"Really happy with our results we got on the serve, especially from Henry Rempel. He was the player of the game, creating a lot of separation from the line for us."
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans are 28-21 all-time against the Bisons. TWU's last loss to U of M took place on Jan. 23, 2016.
• TWU's single-game aces record is 13, which was set by Steve Rogalsky on Jan. 24, 2004. Elser's night (9 aces) brings TWU to a tie for second.

 
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, as well as women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships. 
 
-TW-