EDMONTON – The Trinity Western University men's volleyball team used an efficient offense to defeat the MacEwan University Griffins 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17) Friday night at City Center Gymnasium in Edmonton, Alta. 

The win improves the No. 9 Spartans to 6-3, while the loss drops the Griffins to 1-8. 

"In the second set both teams were efficient, but we couldn't get any stops. We have been working hard on our block defence and it didn't show in that set," commented TWU head coach Ben Josephson. "But we continued to manage our serve better and even though our block defence never did get going, our offence was so efficient we were able to side-out our way to victory." 

"In this league you need to win in a variety of different ways. Today was offensive efficiency - that was the key. Tomorrow might be serving and the next day may need to be blocking," added Josephson. "We are proud that we got through today, but we know that we are going to have to tighten up our blocking to continue to do well. Winning on the road is good and now we will look to see if we can steal another one." 

Fourth year outside hitter Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) led the Spartans with 15 kills and seven digs, while third year outside Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) and second year outside Ben Lieuwen (Abbotsford, B.C.) each added 12 kills. Fourth year setter Devyn Plett (Winnipeg) ran the Spartan attack finishing with 42 assists. 

MacEwans Shane Kerrison led the Griffins with 14 kills at 44 percent, while setter Matt Mohler finished with 41 assists.

After both teams traded points in the early stages of the first set, the Spartans pulled away late to take the opening set 25-19. The Griffins were unable to capitalize on eight service errors committed by the Spartans. Sclater picked up six first set kills to lead the way for the Spartans.

In the second set, the Spartans cleaned up their service game but the Griffins also got their offense rolling as teams continued to trade points. After the Griffins took a 22-18 lead, the Spartans made a late surge that fell just short as the Griffins took the set 25-23. Matthew Mohler, a fourth year Science major, from Edmonton, AB, registered 16 assists in the frame, to set up the Griffins offensive outburst.

A 5-1 run in the third set gave the Spartans a 14-9 lead. Not to be outdone, the Griffins responded with a 6-2 run of their own to tighten the set. The Spartans closed the set on a 6-1 run to win the set by a score of 25-20.

The Spartans used a pair of 5-1 runs to take a 16-11 lead into the fourth set technical timeout. The Griffins were unable to claw their way back, eventually dropping the set 25-17.

The second game of the series is scheduled for Saturday evening at 6:30PM MT at City Center Gymnasium. 

Match Notes: TWU's libero/outside Carter Bergen, setter Adam Schriemer and setter Devyn Plett are originally from Winnipeg…TWU finished the night hitting at .437 percent, while MacEwan finished at .217… 

-GM-

-TW-