LANGLEY, B.C. – The defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Spartans men’s volleyball team continued its winning ways with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-21, 25-15) victory over the visiting MacEwan Griffins Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
Jesse Elser (Calgary) had a big game offensively for TWU, contributing a game-high 24.5 points, including an errorless 15 kills, eight serving aces and five digs while hitting .682. Jackson Howe (Calgary) added 9.5 points for the Spartans, including six kills while hitting .400.
First-year setter Mathias Elsers (Calgary) started the second and third sets, collecting a match-high 28 assists, while third-year transfer Jordan Schnitzer (Surrey, B.C.) made his first start with TWU and earned five kills and seven blocks.
The Griffins were led by Max Vriend, who managed 7.5 points and six kills in the match.
With the win TWU improved to 4-1 on the season, while the loss drops MacEwan to 1-2.
Serving aces favoured TWU 13-5 as did blocks, with the Spartans holding a 10-3 advantage. The Spartans also hit .405 compared to the Griffins .095 in the game.
TWU came out flying in the first set, with Jesse Elser leading the way, hitting .833 to go with 10.0 points as the Spartans took the first set 25-12. Putting on a show for the home crowd, Schnithzer earned four kills in the first set.
The Griffins adjusted in the second set, picking up 11 kills but still fell by four points, 25-21.
Into the third set TWU closed out the game as strong as they started, with Howe picking up 6.5 points and Elser adding 5.5 points, as the Spartans took the final set 25-15.
QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
“We put an emphasis on some serving this week. I feel like our misses have been higher than we wanted to. It’s always this cost/benefit of serving tough and misses climb and then serving soft and then no results. It’s always something you fight in volleyball. We’re working through a few different metrics and a few different mindsets and trying to find the sweet spot for the team. I think for two and half sets tonight, we found it but I thought we lost our focus near the end.
“Jesse was incredible – that serving run to start the game made a statement and then he had error-free spiking. Of course with Mathias setting, he’s just going to streak his brother. They’ve been talking about that for years. I’m sure the brother connection has something to do with how special that was.
“It was a great debut for Schnitzer. He came out like a house on fire in that first set. They adjusted after that, which will be great for him to see. Welcome to Canada West. Nothing works for long. It was awesome to see Mathias Elser play that much. You can see the greatness that he has and then you see that he’s a rookie. And then I thought we saw some great stuff from Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.), putting a dent in the floor with that one swing in the third set.”
NOTABLE
- With the win TWU improved an all-time record of 11-0 against MacEwan.
- The Spartans were coming off a pair of straight-set wins over Winnipeg last weekend (Oct. 25-26).
- The Griffins were coming off a bye week after splitting games against Mount Royal to open the season.
NEXT UP
The Spartans will go for the series sweep as they take on MacEwan in a rematch Saturday (7 p.m.) at the Langley Events Centre.
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]