LANGLEY, B.C. – The defending U SPORTS champion Trinity Western men’s volleyball team will compete in the first-ever Can Am Volleyball Holiday Showcase this December taking on some of the best university volleyball teams in North America for a upper echelon showcase event at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (Dec. 28-31).
The tournament features defending NCAA Div. 1 champion Long Beach State University, along with perennial volleyball powers UCLA, Ohio State University and Lewis University, the latter of which was a semifinalist in last year’s NCAA championship tournament. The American quartet will be joined by TWU, the University of Alberta, McMaster University and Ryerson University.
The Spartans will open the tournament taking Long Beach State (Dec. 28) in a battle between of the two defending national champions, before playing UCLA (Dec. 29) in match-up between two teams who could well end up opening their seasons atop their respective rankings, and Lewis (Dec. 31), who will once again be amongst the best teams in the NCAA.
The tournament format will play out as a Canada vs. USA event, with all the Canadian teams playing the American teams for border bragging rights.
SPARTANS SCHEDULE
Dec. 28 – TWU vs. Long Beach State – 7 p.m. (ET)
Dec. 29 – TWU vs. UCLA – 7 p.m. (ET)
Dec. 31 – TWU vs. Lewis – 2 p.m. (ET)
The last time TWU took on an American foe was in 2009-10, when the Spartans played both UCLA and the University of the Pacific at Calgary’s Dino Cup. TWU finished that year’s tournament with a 3-0 record against its NCAA opponents, beating UCLA once (3-0) and Pacific twice (3-2 and 3-0).
Throughout the 2000s, the Spartans regularly played against NCAA competition in preseason tournaments, compiling an all-time record of 20-19 against Div. 1 opponents.
TWU has previously played all three teams it will face in the Can Am Showcase, owning a 2-1 record against Long Beach, a 3-2 record against UCLA and a 1-2 record against Lewis.
TWU’S ALL-TIME RECORD vs. NCAA DIV. I OPPONENTS
BYU – 2-2
Cal State Northridge – 1-1
George Mason – 0-1
Lewis – 1-2
Long Beach State – 2-1
Pacific – 3-1
Pepperdine – 3-4
Purdue Fort Wayne – 2-0
Stanford – 0-1
UC Irvine – 0-1
UCLA – 3-2
UC Santa Barbara – 1-2
USC – 2-1
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, cross country and track & field, as well as women’s rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men’s hockey and as an independent team in men’s rugby. The men’s and women’s hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.
[SOURCE: Trinity Western University]