KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – Playing with a young lineup, the Trinity Western men's volleyball team lost 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 25-15, 24-26, 15-13) to a veteran UBC Okanagan side Friday afternoon at the TRU Tournament.

The Spartans were led by Ben Lieuwen (Abbotsford, B.C.) offensively, who had 19 kills while first-year Jacob Kern (Edmonton) contributed 17 kills and a team-high 10 digs. Setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) had another strong outing, earning 47 assists.

The Heat's Jim Bell had a team-high 15 kills while Lar Bornemann added 14 and Alex Swiatlowski had 11. Leo Schober had a match-high eight blocks for the Heat, who finished with 13.5 blocks. The Spartans finished with five blocks.

"We played a UBCO team that looked to have most of their key guys and we played them with most of our younger guys," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "It was a bit of a lopsided experience but our guys really battled hard. We won the first set really clean but then they pushed back and won the second and third. Our young guys grinded out a win in the fourth and gave them all they could handle in the fifth.

"I'm disappointed we didn't find a way to win that match but I'm pretty happy with the toughness and ability that our young kids showed. Obviously being younger, they made some mistakes but they also made some a lot of great plays beyond their years. I thought Jacob Kern and Ben Lieuwen really had good games and Braden Heppell (Langley, B.C.) was good off the bench again."

The Spartans came out flying in the first set, hitting .545 as a team and only committing one error on the attack, but shortly thereafter the Heat settled into a groove and rallied to win the second and third sets in decisive fashion. The Spartans forced a fifth with a hard-fought two-point win. In the final set, the Spartans again hung with the Heat, but were again edged by two points.

-TW-