LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 3 Trinity Western men's volleyball team clinched a home playoff date with a comeback 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-14, 25-19) win over No. 8 Saskatchewan Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

After TWU dropped the first set, the Spartans stormed back over the final three sets, making a combined six attack errors, to win their 10th straight match.

After evening the match 1-1, the Spartans hit .478 as a team over the final two sets to take the match.

With a dominant effort at the net that saw TWU collect 17 blocks to the Huskies three, the Spartans improved to 17-4 on the season to keep pace with Brandon for second place. TWU is now just one game behind Alberta (18-3) for top spot in Canada West. The loss drops the Huskies to 12-9 and into a three-way tie for fourth place with Manitoba and Winnipeg.

Nick Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.) led the way for TWU with a season-high 23 kills while hitting .583 and also collecting four blocks and two aces.

"That was the best match I've seen Nick play," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "He may have had a game with better numbers, but on senior weekend against that opponent, that was impressive. That shoulder was lit today."

Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) added 14 kills and three aces. Daniel Grant (Chetwynd, B.C.) had a match-high eight blocks. Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) led TWU with 37 assists while libero Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a match-high 10 digs.

Saskatchewan was led by Jordan Nowakowski, who had 12 kills and six digs, and Matthew Busse, who had 10 kills and seven digs. Troy Wiebe had 34 assists.

"In the first set our offence was great, but the problem was that theirs was better," Josephson said. "They thundered some balls. Obviously it was a very poor game plan on my part. Credit to them for being a little crisper offensively than I was expecting, but credit to our guys for their ability to adapt emotionally, technically and tactically. Overall we were more engaged in the second set and beyond and then we made a couple of tactical changes that helped."

The first set was a battle from the outset as neither team took more than a three-point lead throughout. With the set tied 22-22, a kill from the Huskies Busse sparked the visitors on what would be a 3-0 set-winning run. A kill from Paul Thomson finished the set with Saskatchewan, who hit .357 as a team, up 25-22. The Spartans hit .333 as a team, but it was five serving errors to the Huskies one that proved to be the difference.

Another tight set looked to be going the Huskies way when the visitors took a 16-14 lead into the break. However, with the score tied 17-17, the Sclater-led Spartans went on a 7-1 run, which featured Sclater picking up two kills and two blocks, to get to set point. After Saskatchewan staved off the winning point twice, Del Bianco earned the winning kill.

With the Spartans up 10-9 in the third set, TWU went on a 5-0 run that turned the game for good. Then at 19-14, the Spartans finished the set with six straight points, capped by a Sclater ace.

The fourth set returned to the back and forth nature of the first two sets and, after a Thomson kill, the teams were tied 12-12. But the Spartans scored four of the next six points to take a 16-14 lead into the technical timeout. TWU pushed its lead to 20-16 and then ran away with it late, winning on a Huskies serving error.

The teams will play the rematch Saturday at 7 p.m. at the LEC.

Game Notes: The Spartans finished the night hitting .394 compared to the Huskies .147…both teams had six aces…TWU has lost just two sets over its last eight matches…the Spartans have won 26 straight matches, including the regular season and playoffs, over the Huskies.

-TW-