REGINA – With nine blocks and seven kills, Trinity Western's Daniel Grant (Chetwynd, B.C.) helped lead the No. 4 Spartans men's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-12) win over Regina Friday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport on the U of R campus.

After eking out a tight first set, the Spartans found their groove in the second and third sets and with 13 team blocks, TWU (11-4) rolled to its fifth straight win in league play. The win, combined with Brandon and Winnipeg losses, puts the Spartans into a three-way tie for second in the Canada West standings.

Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and Nick Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.) each tied for the match-high with nine kills for TWU, while Branden Schmidt (De Winton, Alta.) collected seven kills and four blocks. Setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) finished with 26 assists with Devyn Plett (Winnipeg) collected 10 assists in limited duty.
 
Jacques Borgeaud piled up a match-high 10 digs to highlight the night for the 1-14 Cougars. Andre Borgeaud had a team-leading seven kills for the U of R, which will host TWU again on Saturday night at the CKHS. Match time is set for 6:30 p.m. and will follow the conclusion of the women's match.

"The first set we started off okay but our opponents were scrappy and didn't give us anything easy, so we had to grind it back," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "We ended up stealing the set and I thought our guys showed tremendous patience and poise to let the system and their ability take over. After that I thought we had pretty good control in the second set and in the third set our block really figured out what they were doing and we had a great finish to the match."
 
The Cougars gave TWU all it could handle in the first as the two teams battled back and forth in a set that featured nine tie scores and three lead changes, but the Spartans eventually prevailed. The Cougars led by three at the technical timeout and had a 19-17 lead following an Andre Borgeaud kill, but TWU collected four straight points to take the lead for good and put away the Cougars on their second attempt at set point for a 25-23 win.
 
TWU rode that momentum into the second set, which the Spartans won by a 25-19 margin largely due to their .464 hitting percentage as a team, and then cruised to a 25-12 win in the third to clinch the victory.

"Our theme this weekend is joy and we were trying to make a joyful noise as we played and find joy in playing the game," Josephson said. "It was cool to see them apply the joy they have to their performance."

Game Notes: Tonight's game saw Plett in Canada West action for the first time since Jan. 18, 2013 when he had a 60-assist effort against Manitoba…due to injury, Plett hasn't played competitively since then…Plett rejoined the team over the Christmas break.

-TW-