WINNIPEG – Trinity Western University will take home a silver medal from the 2022 U SPORTS Championship after losing to Alberta in the final 3-1 (25-22, 12-25, 26-24, 25-19) Sunday at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. 
 
The Canada West champion Spartans tied the match 1-1 with a dominant second set effort, but the Bears responded by eeking out the third set 26-24. Alberta took momentum into the four set, scoring the first four points, and never trailed en route to winning the national title. 
 
The match marked the Spartans sixth straight season playing in the national final, with TWU now owning three gold medals and three silver medals since 2015.
 
Middel Jordan Schnitzer (Surrey, B.C.) was dominant from the middle, earning 14 kills and hitting .600. Brodie Hofer (Langley) added a team-high 16 kills while Jackson Howe (Calgary) had eight kills and hit .700. Setter Derek Epp (Saskatoon) had 40 assists and four kills.

Isaac Heslinga added 13 kills and Max Elgert had 35 assists for Alberta.

Alberta recorded a .344 hitting percentage in the match, compared to Trinity Western's .356.
 
Of the Spartans starters, graduating seniors Colton Loewen, Howe, Epp and Schnitzer all played their final games as a Spartan.
 
TWU coach Ben Josepshon is also moving on, as he will start coaching Canada's men's national team, starting April 1. 
 
The Spartans now have 13 U SPORTS medals, including six gold, five silver and two bronze.

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Head Coach Ben Josephson 
"I think tonight had more to do with what went well for them. You had two of the best setters in the country going at it and two of the best offences with physical kids everywhere, so it was set up pretty clearly to be a game of what we call 'terminal serving.' That's combination of aces and misses. We split the first two sets and in third set, we went down big but almost came back because of terminal serving. There were a lot of big serves and their passers held up a little bit better than us and their servers applied just a little more pressure and that's probably the phase you point to as the difference. I thought it was really hard to stop everybody – big kills and big spikers and lots of good scrambles. At the end of the day, it always comes down to that serve and pass bit. They were a little sharper in that phase. That's probably what we're going to look at. I think we're going to look at missed opportunities. Unfortunately, every time you lose a big match, that's what you look at – each guy is going to look at three or four moments when they didn't make the play that they probably wanted to. I can think of three or four moments when I had a chance to affect the game a little bit more and didn't. That's what losers have to deal with. 

"We told the team that it hurts and let it hurt and it's okay to hurt. Just make sure the hurt doesn't damage the legacy of the group and the memories of the season. We had a fantastic season and the relationships we built are amazing. A loss in this game is going to hurt for a long, long time and there's nothing we can do to save them from that. But it hurts so much because they had a chance to win it and they put so much into it. Because they care so much and because they love each other and they love this team so much, it just hurts that much more."

Jesse Elser


 
Mikasa Top Performers Presented by Nike Team
Alberta: Jordan Canham
Trinity Western: Brodie Hofer
 
CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS 
Championship MVP
Jordan Canham, Alberta
 
Championship All-Star Team
Jordan Canham, Alberta
Landon Currie, Alberta
Isaac Heslinga, Alberta
Derek Epp, Trinity Western
Brodie Hofer, Trinity Western
Julien Vanier, Sherbrooke
Hamish Hazelden, Calgary
 
R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award: Manitoba Bisons

Championship History 

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