LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 6 Trinity Western men's volleyball team bounced back from a five-set loss Friday to earn a 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-22) win over No. 10 UBC in the final game of the regular season Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

On the strength of the three-pronged attack of Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), who had 17 kills, Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.), who had 14 kills, and Scott Plocktis (Kelowna, B.C.), who had six kills on just seven attempts, the Spartans overcame a 10-0 UBC edge in aces to finish the season with a win that put TWU at 14-10 for the year.

The Spartans, who finished sixth in the conference standings, will now prepare to open the Canada West playoffs on the road against Calgary in the conference quarter-finals. The best-of-three series, which starts Friday, will see the winner advance to the Canada West Final Four.

For the Thunderbirds (13-11), the loss sees their season come to an end and their playoff hopes dashed.

Playing in front of over 1000 fans, graduating senior Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.), who was playing in the final home game of his university career, had a match-high 11 digs while Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) had a match-high seven blocks. Boettcher finished as the Canada West leader in blocks per set with 1.30. The Spartans have now had the conference's top blocker in five of the last six seasons, including Danny Grant (2014-15), Lucas Van Berkel (2013-14 and 2010-11) and Dan Jansen Van Doorn (2012-13).

UBC was led by Mat Guidi, who had 10 kills and four aces, while Irvan Brar had seven kills. Setter Milan Nikic added five aces and 24 assists.

The Spartans finished with a .250 hitting percentage while holding UBC to .110.

"We executed on our plan to slow their big middle," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson, whose team held UBC's Alex Russell to just four kills and a .111 hitting percentage. "We were happy with that. Last night, we didn't execute on lots of the things we were trying to do. Tonight, the game turned into a volleyball game above the net and that's our advantage. Yesterday, I felt like it was below the net and that's their advantage. Like all matchups, as soon as you turn it into your style, you have the advantage.

"Their servers were great and kept it in it, but our serving was way better than last night, but we just didn't get aces."

The T-Birds scored the first four points of the night, but the Spartans responded with a 9-0 run to take a lead they wouldn't relinquish. After hitting just .228 on Friday night, the Spartans opened Saturday's match by hitting .393 in the first set. Scheerhoorn had five kills and just one attacking error while Plocktis had an error-less four kills. Despite UBC holding the Spartans without a block and having a 3-0 edge in aces, it was TWU winning 25-22.

With Scheerhoorn and Sclater collecting eight kills apiece, the Spartans took a two-set lead after edging UBC 27-25 in the second set. Like the first set, UBC took a quick lead, going ahead 4-1, before TWU went on a 5-1 run to take the lead. From there, it was back-and-forth. The Spartans took a 23-20 lead, but UBC battled back to extend the set beyond 25 points. With the set tied 25-25, Sclater put the Spartans on set point with a kill down the right line before a monster TWU block ended the set.

Despite UBC having an 8-0 edge in aces through two sets, the T-Birds trailed 2-0.

In the third set, the Spartans went up 8-1 and never trailed. The T-Birds rallied to get within two points on three separate occasions, but they couldn't climb any closer. On TWU's third attempt at match-point, the Spartans finally got the win after a UBC serving error. Sclater led TWU with five kills in the final set.
Game Notes: The Spartans will open the playoffs on the road for the first time since 2008, when they travelled to Winnipeg…TWU is now 34-14 all-time against UBC in the regular season…Boettcher finished the season with a Canada West leading 1.30 blocks per set…Koslowsky ended the year second in the conference with 2.66 digs per set.

"I'm pretty excited not to see Nikic and Russell around anymore," Josephson said. "Those two have great chemistry together and are just awesome players. Nikic kept it in it with his service and our whole defensive scheme was designed around a middle player, which is a credit to how good Russell is."

Game Notes: The Spartans finished the season with a 5-1 record against B.C.-based opponents…TWU won five of its last six matches of the season in three sets…The Spartans dropped both regular season matches against Calgary, losing in five sets the first night and four sets the second night.

-TW-