CALGARY – Trinity Western lost for the first time all preseason, falling 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 25-17) to Mount Royal in a winner-take-all match to end the Blue Team Cup Saturday at Kenyon Court.
 
The Spartans finished the Blue Team Cup with a 2-1 record, including five-set wins over both UBC and UBC Okanagan. MRU won the Blue Team Cup with a 3-0 record, beating UBC 3-1 and UBCO 3-0. 
 
TWU's Kaden Schmidt had a match-high 20 kills while Aidan Vandenheuvel added nine kills to go with four blocks for the Spartans. Ben Pike had 30 assists while coming in off the bench in the first and second sets and starting both the third and fourth sets.
 
The Cougars had a .264 hitting percentage compared to the Spartans .134 hitting percentage. MRU also had the edge in blocks, with 11.5 to TWU's eight, and aces, with four to the Spartans one. 
 
Calum Stewart led MRU with 14 kills while Kale Orr had 13 kills. 
 
TWU finished the preseason with a 6-1 record. 
 
With an unbalanced Canada West schedule, TWU and MRU will not see each other during the regular season. 
 
The Cougars will host the 2027 U SPORTS Men's Volleyball Championship March 19-21 on Kenyon Court.
 
QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer, TWU Head Coach 
"First off – congratulations to Mount Royal on winning the Blue Team Cup. I thought they were clearly the best team all weekend. It's tough when we give our opponents so many points in the serving and attacking phase and it was hard to find rhythm. We didn't really find our serve nor our offensive execution. We were able to get a bit of it going in the third set and I was happy with our response because we weren't playing as well as we could have been. That being said, I love where our group is at. We have a great team and we have lots of cool options and lots of depth and I'm excited to see how we can go play Canada West volleyball starting next week."
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will open their Canada West regular season schedule Oct. 23-24 when they host Manitoba at the Langley Events Centre. 
 
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 and women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 15 U SPORTS team championships and 35 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 CIS 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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