No. 2 Spartans sweep Thompson Rivers

LANGLEY, B.C. – No. 2-ranked Trinity Western men's volleyball team earned a weekend sweep over visiting Thompson Rivers after a 3-0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-21) win Saturday at the Langley Events Centre. 
 
With the Spartans trailing 22-18 in the opening set, the home side found a different gear, scoring eight of the final 10 points of the set, capped by a Kyden Dmitruk kill, to rally for the win. From there, with the Spartans serving game leading the way with 10 aces, TWU took the second and third sets to cap the two-match sweep. The Spartans (10-2) had knocked off TRU (4-10) in five sets on Friday night. 
 
Kaden Schmidt had a match-high 12 kills and five aces to lead TWU both offensively and at the baseline. Cory Schoenherr had eight kills, while hitting .778 to go with two aces and two blocks. After entering the game midway through the first set sets of action, Willem Van Huizen finished with six kills, three blocks and an ace, while hitting .667. 
 
TWU setter Anselm Rein had 24 assists, three kills, two aces and two blocks. 
 
Rylan Ibbetson led TRU offensively with 11 kills, while middle Jakob Leinemann had four kills and six blocks. Setter Walker Sodaro had 23 assists and four kills. 
 
TWU hit .276 as a team as they improved in every set throughout the night. After hitting .000 in the opening set, the Spartans hit .333 in the second set and .516 in the third set. After committing 11 attacking errors in the first set, TWU had just three over the final two sets. 
 
TRU also improved in each set, hitting .091 in the first set, .154 in the second and .400 in the third set. 
 
The WolfPack had just two aces compared to TWU's 10.
 
QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer, TWU Head Coach
"We all just hit our serve really aggressively the whole night, but aggressive in the way of variation too. We talk about the best serve being the one you don't expect and our variations between spin and float and then blasting made our serve quite effective. 
 
"When it was 22-18 (in the first set), we just said that if every server goes two-for-one, we could catch them by deuce and we somehow did it. Cory was amazing in that run and then we got the ball back through mega rallies and really good block touches. From there, we were really clean the rest of the match. We started off the match with a lot of errors, but after that we were using lots of different tools and shots to score. 
 
"Cory was amazing tonight. I'm really proud of Kaden and (Jackson) Corneil how they responded in different ways from poorer starts and Anselm was awesome." 
 
NOTABLE
•       Rein and Schmidt are now the top two servers in Canada West, with Rein averaging 0.56 aces per set and Schmidt averaging 0.54 aces per set.
•       After making his Spartans debut Friday night, Nathan Howden-Duke got into Saturday's game as well, going on a three-serve run in the third set.  
•       TWU is 76-14 lifetime against TRU.
•       The Spartans are now riding a 13-match regular season winning streak against TRU. 
 
UP NEXT 
TWU travels to play Brandon Jan. 16-17 at the Healthy Living Centre. The Spartans next home games are Feb. 6-7 when they host Saskatchewan.