LANGLEY, British Columbia – The feeling inside the packed out gym was electric as the No. 4 Trinity Western men's volleyball team won its home-opening match against Winnipeg 3-1 (26-28, 25-12, 25-21, 25-16) Friday at the David E. Enarson Gym.

After dropping the first set 28-26, the Spartans (2-1) bounced back in emphatic fashion, winning the next three sets with both an impressive attack and a vaunted serving effort.

From the baseline, TWU's 16 aces equaled the second best serving effort by a Spartans team in the program's history, while TWU's attack hit .492 over the final three sets and .413 over the full match.

The Spartans record for aces in a match is 19, which they set Jan. 24, 2004 against Winnipeg. TWU previously had a 16-ace night on Feb. 17, 2006, which was also against the Wesmen.
    
With the Enarson stands filled with the Spartan Faithful for the first time since 2012, the Spartans were buoyed by a vibrant crowd and rode a wave of fan-driven momentum to a quality win.

"It was great environment," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "We knew it'd be rocking and it was. It was fun for the guys.

"Overall, I was pretty frustrated with the execution stuff, but I was pretty happy with the athleticism our team showed. I thought the guys played with good togetherness. I was hard on them the whole time and they kept staying together. I was happy with the way they made each other better."

The Spartans were led by the attacking duo of Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) and Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), who combined for 39 of TWU's 53 kills. Scheerhoorn had 20 kills while hitting .562 while Sclater had 19 kills and hit .531. Middle Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) also joined the .500 club as he hit exactly .500, with seven kills on 12 attempts and just one error. Setter Devyn Plett (Winnipeg), who hadn't played a home game since Jan. 18, 2013 due to injuries, had 42 assists.

On the Wesmen side, David Bommersbach had 15 kills and Brendan Black had 13 kills while Logan Brennan had a match-high 11 digs.

The first set was a tight fight, but three straight Wesmen points, capped by a Jaden Prive ace gave the set to Winnipeg. Despite dropping the set 28-26, the Spartans saw Boettcher with a .750 attack percentage and Sclater with six kills.
    
In the second set, TWU found a consistent flow and rolled to a 25-12 win. Once again, Boettcher as well as Leigh Goossen (Kelowna, B.C.) were critical in the win.
 
Scheerhoorn came out in the third set with both aggressive attacking and serving. Sclater brought strategic gameplay and smart hitting from the outside position to rally the Spartans to a close but convincing 25-21 win.
    
In the fourth set, the Spartans pulled away early and never gave Winnipeg a chance. After a block by Goossen and Scott Plocktis (Kelowna) set up match point, Goossen finished it off with an ace that hit the tape and crawled over the net for the win.

"I thought we were nervy in the first set," Josephson said. "Maybe the moment just got them and they just played with their emotions instead of their heads. But in the second set we cleaned up some things and then we got a lot of good bounces, with some tape aces and roof aces. So the second set was the Enar love. The third set, Winnipeg responded and that was a really good volleyball set. Fourth set, I think we just had too much momentum and I thought our setter had a good handle on what to do."
.
With history repeating itself for now, the last time TWU hosted Winnipeg, the Spartans won both matches in four sets.

The two teams will play in a rematch Saturday at 7 pm back at the Enarson Gym.  

Game Notes: The four best serving efforts by TWU in history have all come against Winnipeg…the Wesmen had 10 blocks to TWU's 7.5…attendance was 450.

-TW-