SASKATOON – The No. 5 Trinity Western Spartans were swept by Saskatchewan for the second time in as many nights by the Huskies, as the visitors lost 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-23) Saturday night at the PAC.
 
Saskatchewan improved to 4-2 on the season while the Spartans drop to 3-3 in 2015. The Huskies, who came into the weekend with a 9-23 all-time regular season record against the Spartans, ended their recent struggles with the back-to-back victories.

The Spartans Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) had 14 kills and Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) added 11 kills, but the team's block was once again held in check as TWU had just four blocks and allowed the Huskies to hit .449 as team.

Andrew Nelson, Jordan Nowakowski and Tyler Epp had 10 kills each while the Huskies had eight blocks as a team.

"That's a tough one," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "To summarize, that's the worst weekend of volleyball Trinity Western has played with me as a head coach. So, lots of things need to change and starting Monday, we will change them. There's nothing else to say other than that. We are in a tough spot and now we have to figure out how to change it and get back moving in the right direction. Rough weekend. Great opponent. That's it."

The Spartans haven't lost back-to-back three-set matches in a single regular season weekend in nearly 10 years, dating back to before Josephson took over as the team's head coach in 2007. The last time TWU suffered two three-set losses in one weekend was Nov. 24-26, 2005 on the road against Alberta.
 
In the first set the Huskies were efficient with 12 kills and no errors on route to a commanding 25-14 win despite losing setter Troy Wiebe to injury.
 
In the second, freshman setter CJ Gavlas did an admirable job filling in for the injured Wiebe to get the Huskies get off to a 7-3 start. The Spartans closed the gap to 12-10 before Saskatchewan slowly started to pull away. After a kill of his own, Robert Graham served out the set.
 
After the Huskies led early in the third, TWU battled back late in the set to take the lead at 19-18. The Spartans looked like they might force a fourth set up 23-21 with serve. However, a Huskie timeout sparked Saskatchewan, who, led by a pair of Epp kills, went on a 4-0 run to win 25-23.

Saskatchewan was effective digging the ball on Saturday with 31 compared to just 19 for the Spartans.
 
TWU will now have a week off before returning to the court Nov. 13-14 when the Spartans will host Regina at the Langley Events Centre.

Game Notes: The Huskies haven't earned a two-match regular season sweep over TWU since a weekend series on Nov. 1-2, 2002...last year, TWU beat Saskatchewan 3-1 and 3-2 on home court…the last time TWU was in Saskatchewan for a regular season contest was Nov. 1-2, 2013 when the Spartans won 3-0 and 3-1.

-TW-