EDMONTON – The Trinity Western University Spartans, currently the hottest team in Canada West, extended their win streak to 16 games, defeating the Brandon University Bobcats in four sets (25-19, 25-19, 21-25, 25-22) for the second-straight year in a conference semi-final, Friday afternoon at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
Unsurprisingly, Canada West MVP Nick Del Bianco led Trinity Western with a team-high 18 kills and two aces, while Conference Second Team All-Star Ryan Sclater chipped in with 13 kills. Sophomore setter Adam Schriemer recorded 41 assists while the entire squad netted an impressive 28 block assists, senior middle Daniel Grant, also the CIS block leader, contributing a game-high of eight.
Canada West First Team All-Star Sebastien Steigmeier had a game-high 19 kills for Brandon to go with two aces, while Second Team All-Star Sam Tuivai added 13 kills and fourth-year setter David Stasica put up a game-high 49 assists.
Battling against each other for the third-straight year at the Canada West Final Four tournament, the opening set was relentlessly even for the familiar foes until the Spartans began pulling away after the technical timeout, a 6-0 run getting the score to 22-16.
The Bobcats responded with good defence on powerful digs to erase part of the deficit, but a bad set error by Stasica handed Trinity Western a 1-0 set lead.
The Spartan defence then took control to open the second, forcing Brandon to make errors on the attack through direct blocks or having nowhere to go except out of bounds, a 7-2 run giving Trinity Western a confident lead.
Although the Bobcats tried to shift the momentum several times, the Spartans just kept playing their game, going point-for-point with their opponents before Tuivai's jump serve went long to make it 24-18 and senior outside hitter Branden Schmidt fired one off Tuivai in the back row and high into the crowd for a commanding 2-0 set lead.
"Beating Brandon is never easy," replied Trinity Western head coach Ben Josephson, "especially at this time of year. They have four or five of the best players in the country, so to compete against them for the right to win Canada West and move on to the CIS championship is difficult. I thought we did a good job early, and I think our blocking made them hesitant with their shot selection. I think the third and fourth sets turned into what I expected the whole match to be, which was a slugfest, but I think we came out of the gate a little quicker than they were prepared for. Once they sort of calibrated to where we were, they're just so physical, that it turned into a slugfest."
Brandon fought back hard in the third set, even though Del Bianco's powerful kill to break a 6-6 tie appeared to have the Spartans in the driver's seat.
After a quick 5-1 run for Trinity Western, the Bobcats slugged things out, chipping away at the lead and turned a 6-1 run into a 16-15 lead. Three consecutive kills by Del Bianco got the Spartans back on top by two, but 6'7" Steigmeier fueled a 7-1 run with three of his own, the Geneva ,Switzerland native spinning a set-high eight kills to get Brandon back into the match.
The momentum squarely behind the Bobcats, the fourth set began with a 9-4 Brandon lead but a resilient Trinity Western team continued the slugfest, tying things up at 10 apiece before Del Bianco took centre stage.
"Nick was absolutely our best player tonight, when we needed him to be. I mean, he is Player of the Year for a reason. He's just an incredible player. But Brandon did a good job on him in the third set, I don't think he got his first kill until midway though, and he wasn't serving well. He led the country in aces this year, but not until those final few points in the fourth set, when we needed him to really step up and be the player that he is, did he deliver. And that's what we need from him. We have lots of good players, but when the chips are down, like they were today, we need him to elevate and bring us those final match-winning points, and he did today."
Delivering a half-dozen kills in the in the second half of the final set, the senior outside hitter spun a cross-court attack down the net and just inside the far line to make it 23-21 and served a monstrous ace off New Zealand setter Roy Ching in the back row to make it 24-21. Sclater would cap off the proceedings with match point off a Brandon defender, solidifying the Spartans' chances at playing for the conference title.
"We're excited for another chance to compete in the gold medal match. We didn't perform so well in that game last time, so we're excited for another shot."
Trinity Western goes for gold at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday while Brandon plays in the bronze medal game, start time at 5:00 p.m.