LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 6 Trinity Western men's volleyball team rallied to force a fifth set, but in the end came up short as the Spartans lost 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 25-19, 18-25, 15-13) to No. 10 UBC Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

With UBC (13-10) on match point, Joel Regehr and Byron Keturakis stuff-blocked a Spartans attack off the left side to secure a critical win that kept the Thunderbirds in the playoff hunt.  

With the loss, the Spartans (13-10) hopes of hosting a Canada West quarter-final series were dashed. The last time TWU opened the post-season on the road was Feb. 15-16, 2008, when they travelled to Winnipeg. The Spartans dropped the best-of-three series to the Wesmen after back-to-back three-set losses. TWU have opened the playoffs at home in each of the last seven years.

With Mount Royal in eighth at 12-11, the T-Birds might still need a win Saturday to clinch a playoff spot.

The two teams are back on the court Saturday at 7 p.m. for the final match of the regular season.

The Spartans Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) led TWU with 22 kills and nine digs while Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) had 15 kills and 11 digs. Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a team-high 12 digs while setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) had 43 assists. Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) had a match-high nine blocks.

UBC was led by the three-pronged attack of Alex Russell, who had 18 kills, Irvan Brar, who had 13 kills and a team-high 13 digs, and Mat Guidi, who had 12 kills. Setter Milan Nikic added 48 assists.

The T-Birds hit .241 as a team while the Spartans hit .228. The Spartans had a 13-10 edge in blocks, but were held without a block in the fifth set.

"It was a weird volleyball game," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "The first set was littered with missed opportunities to make plays on our side, so we kind of spotted them the first set. After that, it turned into a see-saw battle, but when you're down a set, you see-saw to the bad side. I wasn't super pleased with our fight until the fourth set. You could see they were playing for their playoff lives and I don't think it meant enough for us until about halfway through the fourth set. You could see it in their eyes that they weren't going away.

"They played like it mattered and that's a great lesson for our guys. They had a better edge and that's on us as coaches to not have our guys edgy enough. Hopefully the guys play tomorrow like it really means something."  

The T-Birds took the first set after holding TWU to a .029 hitting percentage while collecting three aces and four blocks. Despite six kills from Sclater, the T-Birds Russell tallied four kills and Mac McNicol had three blocks to stymie the Spartans.

In the second set, the Spartans block came to play as they had five blocks to turn the set in their favour early and go up by six at the technical timeout. With TWU hitting .303, the Spartans opened a 24-18 lead before taking the set by four. Sclater had another five kills while UBC's Brar responded with five kills himself.

UBC took control early in the third set and opened as much as an eight-point edge, at 18-10. The Spartans got back within four with a 4-0 run, but TWU couldn't get any closer. Hitting .444 as a team, UBC cruised to a 25-19 win. Russell finished the set with seven kills on eight attacks without an error.

The teams were tied 11-11 in the fourth set before the Spartans started to inch away from the T-Birds – first going ahead 16-14 before pulling away in the latter stages to earn a seven-point win. With Scheerhoorn leading the offence with five kills in the set, the Spartans rolled to the win. A block from Schriemer and Boettcher sealed the set.

In the fifth set, the Spartans took an 8-6 lead at the switch after a Sclater bomb earned an ace. However, the T-Birds scored the next three points to take a 9-8 lead after a Russell kill. An off-balance kill from Scheerhoorn restored TWU's lead at 11-10, but UBC came back and with a massive block took the set and the match.

Game Notes: The Spartans will honour graduating senior Tyler Koslowsky in a special pre-game ceremony on Saturday…the win snapped a five-match losing streak against TWU…The last time the Thunderbirds beat the Spartans was Oct. 27, 2012, when they won in four sets...The Spartans are 34-13 all-time in the regular season against UBC.

-TW-