LANGLEY, British Columbia – Coming off a bye week, the No. 10 Trinity Western men's volleyball team moved back above the .500 mark with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-22) win over Regina Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

The Spartans, who had lost back-to-back matches in their last action two weeks ago against Saskatchewan, bounced back to pick up a win over the Cougars in their first game of the year at the LEC.

TWU, who hit .262 as a team, was led by Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), who had a match-high nine kills. Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) and Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) each had seven kills while setter Devyn Plett (Winnipeg) had 28 assists. Ben Lieuwen (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a career-high six kills and a career-high three aces. Libero Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a match-high 15 digs.

Regina's Matthew Lueck had a team-high eight kills while Joshua Nickel added seven kills. Andre Borgeaud had a team-high 10 digs and Bronson Busch had a team-high three blocks.

After being held to just nine blocks in their last weekend in Saskatchewan, TWU had 14 blocks on Friday compared to Regina's five.

"It was a good step in the right direction," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "For the last two weeks, we emphasized fundamentals and our technical abilities and some systematic base stuff. I thought those elements were really strong tonight. The things we had focused on since playing Saskatchewan showed up. We talked about the application of turning preparation into performance. It's a very difficult skill, but it's a requirement for improvement and growth. We practiced things that showed up in tonight's game, so I'm very pleased that we applied that.

"As we build towards the second semester, we have to tighten up our mental decisions. But in the meantime, we just have to be sharp technically and let our size and athleticism make plays. Tonight we did that and I don't think we had been doing that very well prior to the bye week."

The Cougars opened a quick 8-5 lead in the first set, but the Spartans pushed back shortly thereafter, going on a 10-4 run, to open a 15-12 edge. From there, TWU held off the Cougars to pick up a four-point win after a Regina error sealed the set.

With the teams tied 5-5 early in the second set, TWU went on a 3-0 run that put the Spartans up 8-5 and gave the home side a lead it wouldn't relinquish. The Spartans extended that advantage to 16-10 at the technical timeout before wrapping up the set 25-20.

In the third set, the Spartans took an 8-4 lead and held that edge through 15-11, before the Cougars battled back to make it a one-point game down the stretch. However, Regina couldn't get any closer and the Spartans held on for a three-point win, capped by a Sclater kill.

The Spartans and Cougars will play in the rematch Saturday at 7 p.m. at the LEC.  

Game Notes: Lieuwen's previous career-high in kills was five against UBC Okanagan Oct. 18, 2014…the Spartans are now 30-1 all-time against Regina and 15-0 at home…the Spartans have has won 25 straight matches against Regina…TWU opened its home slate in its on-campus gym, so Friday's game was the first at the LEC.

-TW-