VANCOUVER, British Columbia– The Trinity Western Spartans won their eighth Canada West Championship Saturday night with a 3-1 victory over the Manitoba Bisons at UBC's War Memorial Gym in Vancouver, B.C. The 25-19, 23-25, 25-13, 27-25 win gives the Spartans their first Canada West championship since the 2021-22 season. This year's title is the Spartans' sixth in the last 10 championships.
 
Fourth-year outside Kaden Schmidt (Mississauga, Ont.) with 23 kills, 10 digs, and five blocks, third-year outside Piers De Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 12 kills, four digs, and three blocks, and fifth-year middle Cory Schoenherr (Waterloo, Ont.) with five kills and eight blocks led the Spartans. Owen Weekes with 17 kills, three blocks, and three digs, and Karil Dadash Adeh with 12 kills, three blocks, and two digs led the Bisons.
 
TWU fifth-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartan offence, finishing with 46 set assists. Manitoba's Sammy Ludwig finished with 30 set assists for the Bisons.
 
UP NEXT
The No. 2 Spartans will now advance as the top Canada West seed to next week's U SPORTS championship, March 13-15 in Windsor, Ont.
 
QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer, TWU Head Coach
"I'm super happy for our guys. That was a hard game, lots of ups and downs…that Manitoba team is so good, they didn't give us any free ones. I'm happy that we could find a way to grind it out – championship games are hard, and I'm just really happy for our guys."
 
"We're just happy with how we're playing. We've got a complete team, a team that can score in a lot of different ways. We're hot, we're healthy, and this group is having a lot of fun playing together. I love the mindset they're in and the consistency of play we have, so it's exciting going into the national tournament."
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans set the tone early in the first set, reeling off five straight points to take a 10-5 lead. A series of strong play over the middle from Schoenherr and Jackson Corneil helped power their lead, and that momentum carried forward through the rest of the set.
 
Up by as many as nine points at one stage, a last-second push from the Bisons made the score a little bit closer but De Greeff closed out the frame with a kill to make it 25-19.
 
While that late run didn't affect who won the first set, it might have carried over into the second as the Bisons continued their surge of stronger play with three early blocks to go up 6-2. The No. 5 seed maintained a multi-point lead for much of the second, with the high-water mark being an 18-12 advantage.
 
That's when the Spartans began to climb their way back into things, with a series of kills from Schmidt, De Greeff, and Willem Van Huizen cutting into the deficit. The Bisons needed plenty of poise when they were up just 23-22 late, and they had it with Dadash Adeh landing two kills in a row to even up the match.
 
The third was the most lopsided set of the four on the night, as the Spartans jumped in front right away and dominated the frame. A Corneil kill followed by two straight blocks for the Trinity Western captain staked the Spartans out in front 18-6, and it was a cruise to the finish line from there.
 
Teetering on the ropes following the blowout third, the Bisons came out with renewed vigor in the fourth, with Jordon Heppner and Weekes landing a series of kills. In a set that featured a period of four straight ties from 11-11 to 14-14, it was Manitoba who briefly pulled in front.
 
Dadash Adeh put his team up 18-16 with a kill, but a red card shown to Manitoba in the aftermath of the play flipped the momentum and kick-started a 7-2 run for the Spartans that put them just two points away from victory.
 
That's when Dueck came up huge, following a couple of Trinity Western errors with a monster solo block over the middle on Schmidt to tie the score at 23-23. But despite earning themselves two set points, the Bisons couldn't seal the deal, and the Spartans prevailed on a dramatic final point of their own at 27-25.

NOTABLE

• The Spartans finished the night hitting at.306 (51-17-111) while the Bisons finished at .134 (43-27-119).
• TWU had the edge in blocks 16-10, digs 35-32, and service aces 5-3
• The Spartans and the Bisons last met on January 10-11, 2025, with Manitoba winning both matches 3-0 on the road in Winnipeg, Man.
•  TWU is currently 32-23 lifetime against Manitoba. Prior to those two losses, the Spartans had won 12 straight conference matches against the Bisons.
• In the final U SPORTS Top 10 rankings on February 17, UBC was No.1, TWU was No. 2, Alberta was No. 5, and Manitoba was No. 8 in the nation.
• The final Canada West standings had UBC No. 1 (19-1), TWU No. 2 (17-3), Alberta No. 3 (15-5), and Manitoba No. 5 (14-6).
• Canada West has three berths at next week's U SPORTS championship in Windsor, Ont., the Spartans and Bisons have qualified with their semi-final wins. The UBC Thunderbirds, who defeated the Alberta Golden Bears 3-0 will also advance to the U SPORTS championship.

 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as in the NAIA in track and field and cross country and 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 33 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.  
 
About Canada West:
As the leading university athletic conference in the country, Canada West is home to student-athletes that excel in the classroom and their communities. The conference is comprised of 17 member institutions spanning from Victoria to Winnipeg, with over 3,200 student-athletes competing across 14 sports. Canada West's mission is to train leaders and build champions by providing leadership in the delivery, regulation, and promotion of university level high performance sports programs throughout western Canada.
 
 
-TW-