LANGLEY, British Columbia – Led by outside hitters Nicholas Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.) and Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) with 16 and 15 kills, respectively the No. 3 Trinity Western University men's volleyball team rallied to defeat the No. 7 UBC Thunderbirds 3-1 Friday night in Canada West men's volleyball action at Vancouver's War Memorial Gymnasium. The 26-28, 25-19, 29-27, and 25-19 win improves the Spartan to 15-4, while the loss drops the Thunderbirds to 10-9. 

"It was a tough four-setter tonight and we're happy to get the win. The first set was a little bit tentative and a little bit sloppy and our opponents were able to take advantage of that," commented TWU head coach Ben Josephson. "We cleaned up some tactics and game plan and I thought we responded really well in the second. Then the third was another dog fight and the fourth we were able to close them out." 

The Spartans blocking and serving were TWU's strong point tonight. Trinity Western had the better in blocking over UBC at 16-9 in total blocks and 11-6 in service aces. "Between our aces and our blocks, we applied a lot of pressure on our opponents and alleviated some of our offensive mishaps."

Fifth year middle Danny Grant (Chetwynd, B.C.) led the way for the Spartans at the net with a career best 11 blocks. While Del Bianco, Sclater and Branden Schmidt (De Winton, Alta.) each had three service aces. 

"I was really pleased with the guys staying in the moment for each point. They didn't get too caught up in some of the intense calls that went for us and against us. Our guys handled the moment well. We got a great performance out of Danny Grant. He had 11 blocks and was very efficient and was matched up against Alex Russell, who is one of the better middles in the league and did a good job trying to hold him down." 

UBC's Mac McNicol led the match with 17 kills on the right side, while middle Chris Howe had 10 kills on 17 attempts along with three solo blocks for the Thunderbirds. 

The Thunderbirds came out aggressive and confident to start the match. Attacking at an efficient 31 per cent, 15 assists by setter Milan Nikic proved to be enough to take the set 28-26. 

After the first set, however, was a different story. 

In the final three sets the Thunderbirds attacked at under 10 per cent efficiency, committing 23 errors with just 31 kills. The Spartans' big block along the net made it difficult for UBC's outsides to garner any momentum on the offensive end. UBC was out-blocked 16-9 in the match, and had 11 service aces against.

Despite being statistically outplayed through much of the game's latter stages, the Thunderbirds still found themselves with two set points in the third set with the match tied 1-1. Ultimately, the Spartans prevailed to take the set 29-27, winning the final three points on kills from Sclater and Del Bianco, followed by an ace from Sclater. 

The visitors went on to win the fourth set decisively, jumping out to 9-3 lead, a six-point margin that ultimately held until the end of the match at 25-19. 

TWU setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) finished the night with 42 assists, while UBC's Nikic finished with 39 assits. 

UBC will have another shot at taking on their rivals from across the Fraser River, as the Spartans will once again step foot into War Memorial Gymnasium for a rematch, scheduled for 7 p.m., on Saturday night. 

Match Notes: It was not a stellar offensive night for either squad as the Spartans finished at 28 per cent to UBC's 16 per cent in attack efficiency…the T-Birds finished the night with 41 digs to the Spartans 37 digs…Libero Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) and Del Bianco finishce the night with 10 digs each…Koslowsky currently leads Canada West and the CIS total digs with 198 and Canada West in digs per set at 2.75… 

-TW-