LANGLEY, British Columbia – Led by a balanced attack, with three Spartans in double-digit kills, the Trinity Western men's volleyball team swept the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-0 Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The win moves the No. 9 Spartans 2-3, while the loss drops the Heat to 1-4.

Second-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 12 kills, second-year outside Kyden Dmitruk (Surrey, B.C.) with 11 kills, and fourth-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 10 kills led the Spartans attack. While Renn Petryk with 11 kills led the Heat. TWU setter Anselm Rein finished the night with 35 set assists, while his counterpart with UBC-O Zach van Geel finished with 27 assists.

AS IT HAPPENED
The opening set was even to start. But with the two teams tied at 8-8, TWU would go on a run to create separation and lead 16-11. TWU used that lead to take the first set 25-19. The Spartans hit .545 (15-3-22) in the set, while the Heat hit .389 (10-3-18).

In the second set, TWU had a marginal early lead, 12-8, but the set would tighten up as the two teams were tied at 16-16 heading into the later stages of the set. With the score even at 21-21, the Spartans finished off the set with a 4-1 run to take the set 25-22 and a 2-0 lead in sets. The Spartans hit .286 (14-6-28), while the Heat hit .250 (11-4-28).

UBC Okanagan had a better start to the final set, leading 9-5 early. But the Spartans were able to turn things around and take a 16-13 lead with an 11-4 run. TWU expanded their lead to 23-18 before UBC-O made a late rally to cut the lead to two points, 23-21. That was as close as they would get as the Spartans finished off the set with a 25-21 third-set win. In the final set TWU hit at .280 (12-5-25), while UBC-O hit at .069 (10-8-29).

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Adam Schriemer
"We were really clean in the first ball phase and the terminal serve phase, but I thought we were sloppy was the transition phase. We had a lot of opportunities to earn digs, and when we did our second ball setting quality wasn't where we wanted to be. So we had a hard time converting those digs into kills, so I think that is an area where we need to upgrade tomorrow. We had opportunities to create more spread in transition, but we didn't."
 
"I thought the third set was pretty sloppy as well. I don't think that we approached the third set with the killer mindset to go out there and really earn a win in Canada West. Especially with what we learned last week. Winning in this league is really, really hard, and being up 2-0 doesn't guarantee you anything. I thought we didn't approach that third set with appropriate intensity, although we flipped it around pretty quickly, which is the nice part."
 
"This week we worked a lot on having a balanced attack and not just relying on Henry. Although Henry had an off night offensively I thought he was really good with his work from the service line. And it was good to see our middles get a bit more volume and I thought Kyden did a really nice job, especially in highball situations."
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans finished the night hitting at .360 (41-14-75), while the Heat finished at .213 (31-15-75).
• UBC Okanagan had the better blocking with eight blocks to TWU's two.
• The Spartans had 25 digs, while the Heat had 15.
• Last week Trinity Western lost to Winnipeg 3-1, and 3-2 in Winnipeg, Man.
• Last week UBC Okanagan lost to Mount Royal 3-1 and 3-0 in Calgary, Alta.
• The Spartans are 42-4 lifetime against the Heat.
• The last time TWU lost to UBC-O was 3-0 on February 25, 2022 in Kelowna, B.C.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will finish the weekend series with the Heat tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. (PT). The match from the Langley Events Centre can be seen live on Canada West 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.
 
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