LANGLEY, British Columbia – For the second night in a row, No. 2 ranked Alberta got the best of No. 10 Trinity Western as the Golden Bears won 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-21, 25-19) Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

With the win, the Bears improved to 14-0 on the season while the loss drops the Spartans to 8-6.

With the fourth set tied 15-15, the Bears went on a 5-0 on run, which all but secured the set and the match. From there, the teams traded points before a Spartans attacking error sealed TWU's fate.

"They went to a different gear at the end and we weren't ready to go with them," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "It's like a distance runner has a kick at the end of the race. They had a kick and we hit the gas and there was nothing there. That's what we have to figure out if we get a chance to play them again."

After registering a season-high 55 digs in Friday's outing, the Bears bettered their effort on Saturday with 59 digs. The Spartans finished with 43 digs.

As a team, TWU hit .258 while collecting eight blocks while Alberta hit .304 while earning 10.5 blocks.

The Bears were led by Ryley Barnes, who had 19 kills, and Taylor Arnett, who added 13 kills while hitting .632 and picking up six blocks. Setter Brett Walsh had 45 assists, 10 digs and six kills on just seven attempts.  Ryan Nickifor had a match-high 16 digs.

The Spartans Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) had 19 kills to lead TWU while Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) had 17 kills. Ben Lieuwen (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a team-high six blocks while libero Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) had 14 digs and setter Devyn Plett (Winnipeg) had 43 assists.

"I'm proud of the effort, but frustrated with the result," Josephson said. "We wanted to establish a level of play at the beginning of the semester and I think we established a pretty high level. I think we did a lot of the things that we've been trying to improve upon really well this weekend. Block defense came a long ways. We managed our serves better tonight and some of the offensive things we've been doing worked well. But, at 15-15 in the fourth set, we broke down in all of those things we've been working on. I thought we measured up well with the favourite, but we just didn't have a kick at the end."

Despite the loss, the Spartans, who also lost to the Bears in four sets on Friday, became the first team all year to take more than one set from Alberta over the course of a two-game weekend series.

A tight first set went back and forth throughout, with the teams trading points to 19-19. A TWU attacking error sparked a 4-0 Alberta run that turned the set the Bears way. In the end a Spartans service error gave the Bears the winning point.

The Spartans held a slight lead early on in the second set but, with score tied 9-9, TWU went on a 4-0 run that swung momentum to the home side. After a three-man TWU block made it 20-13, the Spartans went up by as many as seven points before holding on for a 25-20 win.

With the game tied 16-16 in the third set, a Nickifor kill gave Alberta the lead and that would be the last lead change of the set. Another Nickifor kill extended the Bears lead to 20-17 before a kill from Walsh eventually ended the set with the visitors up by four points. After both teams were held below a .212 hitting percentage in the second set, both teams' found rhythm in the third set as Alberta hit .378 and TWU hit .321.

With momentum on their side, Alberta took the fourth set after a late run opened up what was an otherwise tight set.
    
TWU will travel to play Calgary Jan. 15-16 while Alberta will be in Kelowna next weekend to take on UBC Okanagan.

Game Notes:  The Bears have now won 22 straight CIS matches…Alberta is 38-8 all-time against TWU in Canada West league play…TWU has lost seven consecutive matches against Alberta, including each of the last two Canada West gold medal games.

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