SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – The Trinity Western Spartans and Saskatchewan Huskies are headed to a third match after TWU dropped a five-set marathon to the Saskatchewan 3-2 in the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series Friday night at the Physical Activity Centre in Saskatoon, Sask. The Huskies 33-31, 23-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-10 win evens the best-of-three series at 1-1.
 
Second-year outside Piers De Greef (Victoria, B.C.) with 23 kills, five digs, and two blocks, third-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 21 kills, four digs, two aces, and three blocks, and fourth-year middle Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) with nine kills, and six blocks led the Spartans. While Emmett Graham with 17 kills, nine digs, and four blocks, Isaiah Mamer with 16 kills, six digs, and one block, and Jefferson Morrow with 14 kills, and four digs led the Huskies.
 
Fourth-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) finished with a career-best 59 set assists, three digs, and one ace running the Spartans attack. While Noah Opseth finished with 53 assists and 11 digs for the Huskies.
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Huskies will match up again tomorrow afternoon for game three of the best-of-three quarter-final series. Match time at the Physical Activity Centre in Saskatoon, Sask. is set for 3 p.m. (CT) and can be seen live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
Trinity Western Head Coach Adam Schriemer
"The challenge tonight was Sask plays a really clean game and that starts at the service line and when you lose the terminal serve ratio as much as we did today and even tomorrow it's going to be tough to win. I thought we were great in the first ball and transition phases we just lost too many points when volleyball wasn't being played and that's got to be our upgrade for tomorrow. If we could be cleaner with our serve."
 
"I love how we're playing volleyball. We're excited about our opportunity tomorrow. We have a chance to fight for our season and to extend our season by one more week. There's no other group I'd rather do it with, so we're going to rest up and we're really excited for this opportunity we have tomorrow."

AS IT HAPPENED
The Huskies came out strong and jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and put TWU into an early timeout. After falling behind 9-3 the Spartans took four straight points to cut the Huskies lead to two points, 9-7, after a Schmidt kill and put Saskatchewan into a timeout. The Huskies came out of the timeout and quickly regained their four-point lead with two straight points to lead 11-7. The two teams exchanged points, but TWU was unable to close ground and were forced into a timeout trailing 20-15. The Spartans were able to cut into the lead, but the Huskies had set point 24-22 after Morrow went off hands. TWU eventually got even when they took the next two points to tie the set at 24-24. From there it was side-out ball, with both teams having set points. The Huskies finished off the opening set 33-31 after back-to-back errors by the Spartans. TWU hit .343 (18-6-35), while Saskatchewan hit .222 (16-8-36). TWU had trouble from the end line with 10 service errors and only one ace, while Saskatchewan had one ace and four errors.
 
The Huskies started with a 4-1 run to open the set. After exchanging points, the Spartans were able to score four straight points and after a service ace by Rein had taken a 13-11 lead and put the Huskies into a timeout. Back-to-back TWU errors tied the set at 13-13. The Spartans took four straight points to lead 17-13 after Kyden Dmitruk (third-year outside, Surrey, B.C.) and Schoenherr blocked Morrow and put the Huskies into a timeout.  Saskatchewan came back with three straight points and put TWU into a timeout after Graham's service ace made it a one-point match with the Spartans leading 17-16. After exchanging points Baird tied the set at 18-18. Schmidt put the Spartans up two points after two kills by Schmidt put TWU up 21-19. After exchanging points, Schmidt got TWU to set point leading 24-22. A kill by Morrow held off the Spartans' first set point, but TWU's de Greeff put the set away to tie the sets at 1-1 with the 25-23 win. TWU hit at .333 (17-6-33), while Saskatchewan hit at .321 (13-4-28). TWU had one service ace and three errors in the set, while Saskatchewan had one ace and three errors.
 
The Huskies took the early lead 8-6 in the third set, but TWU was able to use a 7-3 run to take a 15-11 lead after fourth-year middle Jackson Corneil (Surrey, B.C.) and de Greeff blocked the Huskies Graham. But Saskatchewan responded with four straight points to tie the set at 16-16 after a Mamer kill. After exchanging points, the Huskies got a two-point, 22-20, lead after a Morrow kill. TWU's de Greeff got the Spartans to a one-point deficit to trail 22-21. But three straight TWU errors gave Saskatchewan the third set 25-21. The Spartans hit .308 (12-4-26), while the Huskies hit .250 (14-6-32). TWU had one ace and six errors, while Saskatchewan had one ace and three errors.
 
The two teams were even early in the fourth set, tied at 7-7. After exchanging points the Spartans took three straight and put the Huskies into a timeout after a Schmidt kill gave TWU an 11-8 lead. TWU expanded their lead to five points with a 10-7 run as Saskatchewan took a timeout after a kill by Corneil and a Saskatchewan error put TWU up 21-15 and forced a Huskie timeout. TWU outside de Greeff put TWU up 22-16. Service errors gave the Spartans the Spartans set point at 24-19. The Huskies Lucas Musschoot held off the Spartans' first set point, but a Huskies service error gave TWU the fourth set 25-20. TWU hit .448 (15-2-29), while Saskatchewan hit .258 (13-5-31). Neither team had a service ace in the set with TWU committing five errors, while Saskatchewan had four.
 
The Huskies took an early 4-1 lead on a Baird kill in the shortened fifth set. The Spartans came back with a 3-1 run to trail by one point, 5-4 after a Schmidt kill. But the Huskies took the next two points to lead 7-4 after a Graham kill. The teams exchanged points as the Huskies led 8-5 on the changeover. TWU's de Greeff made it a one-point Huskie lead, but Saskatchewan took the next two points and after a service ace by Morrow put TWU into a timeout trailing 10-7. Back-to-back TWU points cut the Saskatchewan lead to one point, 10-9 after a Corneil block of Mamer. With the Huskies calling a timeout to stop the Spartans run. The Huskies regained their three-point, 12-9, lead after a Mamer kill. The Huskies got three of the next four points to take the set 15-10 and the match 3-2. TWU hit .118 (6-4-17), while Saskatchewan hit .400 (8-2-15). TWU had one ace and two service errors, while Saskatchewan had one error and one ace.
 
NOTABLE 

• TWU finished the night hitting .329 (68-22-140), while Saskatchewan hit at .275 (64-25-142).
• Both teams finished the night with 10 blocks.
• TWU had four aces, while Saskatchewan had three. The Spartans finished with 26 errors, while the Huskies finished with 15.
• Both teams finished with 40 digs.
• Rein's 59 set assists ties for the fifth highest in program history. The TWU record is 66 which was set in a 3-1 win, by Josh Howatson ('07) at Winnipeg on November 13, 2004.
• The Spartans rallied to defeat the Huskies 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-22, 15-13) in game one Thursday night in Saskatoon, Sask.
• The No. 8 Spartans finished in fifth place in Canada West at 12-8, while the No. 6 Huskies finished fourth at 14-6.
• The Spartans are currently 44-22 lifetime against the Huskies.
• TWU is 5-5 over the last 10 meetings with Saskatchewan.
• The winner of the best-of-three series will match up with the Manitoba Bisons and Winnipeg Wesmen series winner in a single elimination match next week at the Canada West Final Four.

 
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.
 
About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
 
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