LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western’s men’s volleyball team completed a two-match sweep of Winnipeg, capping its home-opening weekend with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-17) win over Winnipeg Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
The Spartans Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) led TWU (3-1) statistically with 10 kills, while Jackson Howe (Calgary) had eight kills out of the middle and hit .727 without an attacking error.
With his lone ace of the night, the fourth-year Loeppky tied TWU’s record for career aces, joining Josh Howatson at 129.
Winnipeg’s Nigel Nielsen had a match-high 11 kills to go with three blocks to lead the Wesmen (1-3).
TWU finished the night with an 8-2 edge in aces, led by Jacob Kern (Edmonton), who had three. On a rare night when the Spartans block was held in check, Winnipeg had a 6-4 advantage in blocks.
The Spartans put together an efficient effort in the opening set, hitting .435 as a team on their way to a seven-point win over a Winnipeg side that hit just .174.
The second set was a different story, as Winnipeg hung around and the teams went back and forth throughout. With the set tied 23-23, a kill from Kern put TWU on set point and a Winnipeg error gave the home side the win. Winnipeg hit .375 in the set compared to TWU, who hit .296.
In the third set, the game returned to first set form, with TWU taking an early lead before cracking the set open with a 6-1 run that gave the Spartans a 13-7 lead. From there, TWU carried on to wrap up the weekend sweep.
QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
“Winnipeg is a hard team to beat. They’re always scrappy and feisty and they don’t go down go away and I think we saw that again tonight. We challenged our guys in three areas and I think we did a good job in two of those three areas. We still saw a real inconsistent emotional response to the match. There were too many ebbs and flows in that match for the way we want to play. But I thought our transition was better and our serving was better. Clearly, that’s not even close to good enough for what we want to be, but it was good enough for Oct. 26th. We’ll go study and go back to work. It’s only the second week of the season. I think we’re still a long way from finding our groove, but we’re finding ways to win sets.”
NOTABLE
• The Spartans have now won nine straight matches against the Wesmen, dating back to 2017.
• Loeppky is 15 aces behind the Canada West career record of 144 held by Brandon’s Paul Sanderson.
UP NEXT
The Spartans home next weekend as they host MacEwan Nov. 1-2 while Winnipeg has a bye before playing a home-and-home series with Brandon Nov. 7 and 9.
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]