Kingston –Led by second-year outside Kaden Schmidt’s (Mississauga, Ont.) career-best 22 kills the No. 4 Trinity Western Spartans rallied to defeat the No. 8 Guelph Gryphons 3-2 Saturday night at the Queen’s Athletics and Recreation Centre in Kingston, Ont. The 24-26, 25-23, 15-25, 25-21, 15-9 win sends the Spartans to the consolation final Sunday afternoon.
Fourth-year outside Henry Rempel (Swift Current, Sask.) with 15 kills, eight digs, and two aces, and first-year outside Piers de Greeff (Victoria, B.C.) with 11 kills, five blocks, three aces, and three digs also had strong games for the Spartans. Jonathan Pickett with 18 kills, 10 digs, and two blocks, and Cameron Chadwick with 12 kills, five digs, and four blocks led the Gryphons.
TWU second-year setter Anselm Rein (Erfurt, Germany) led the Spartan attack with 46 assists, to go with seven digs and two aces for the Spartans. Thomas Pugsley led the Gryphons with 48 assists.
- The Spartans finished the night hitting at .233 (56-25-133), while the Gryphons finished at .230 (50-24-113).
- TWU had a 13-11 edge in total blocks, and a 7-6 edge in service aces.
- Both teams finished with nine team blocks, while TWU had a 10-4 edge in service aces.
- Guelph finished with an impressive 43-29 advantage in digs.
- Tonight’s match was the first-ever match between TWU and Guelph at the national championship.
- Trinity Western is now 5-0 against Guelph in program history.
- The Spartans now have an overall record of 39-11 at the National Championship.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will play on Sunday against Laval Rouge et Or. The game will be at 1 p.m. ET and can be seen live on CBCSports.ca.
