LANGLEY, British Columbia – After dropping their first match of the season last weekend, No. 1-ranked Trinity Western got right back in the win column with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-23) victory over Thompson Rivers Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

Coming off their loss to No. 8 Saskatchewan, the Spartans (12-1) earned a convincing victory that saw the home side roll to a win on the strength of 13 aces and a .456 hitting percentage.

By comparison, the WolfPack (1-12) were held to a .127 hitting percentage and only four aces.

TWU had a balanced attack, with Jacob Kern (Edmonton) and Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) each tallying nine kills, while Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) had six kills and Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) and Ben Lieuwen (Abbotsford, B.C.) had four kills each. Boettcher also had a match-high five blocks.

Pearce Eshenko (Banff, Alta.) had five aces, including four on a single serving run in the second set, and three kills to help lead from the middle.

TRU's Tim Edge had a team-high eight kills and two aces while Randy Grundmann had six kills.

TWU finished with a 6-1 advantage in blocks.

"It was a great response to what we worked on this week, which was focused on what we didn't do as well on Saturday last week," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "We talk about being like an elastic band – the more you get stretched, the faster and more powerfully you respond and the more it stings. We got stretched last week and we responded with the appropriate power and intensity tonight.

"Now hopefully, we can capture that without a response game. This group has always been good at responding, but we need to keep initiating with perfect process and I thought we had very good service pressure tonight overall and that made for a lot better situations for us. We had similar serving pressure against Saskatchewan last Saturday and it didn't convert. Tonight we converted those opportunities and last week we didn't and that was the difference between those two nights."

The Spartans took a 12-7 first set lead after a Boettcher kill and, while hitting .440 as a team, held off the WolfPack the rest of the way. TRU pulled within one point, at 18-17, but the Spartans responded with a 7-0 run to finish the set. Sclater had five kills to lead the Spartans in the set.

After trading points early on in the second set, the Spartans took a 9-7 edge and turned it into a 22-8 lead thanks to a 13-1 run that featured four aces from Eshenko. A pair of late Sclater kills capped the set for a Spartans side that bettered their first set efficiency by hitting .444. The WolfPack was held to a -.062 hitting percentage and just four kills.

TWU had 10-0 advantage in aces through two sets.

The Spartans opened a 14-10 lead in the third set after back-to-back WolfPack errors, before entering the technical timeout with a 16-13 edge thanks to a Lieuwen kill. TWU held a 20-16 lead, only to see it evaporate after a 4-0 run from the WolfPack. TWU got the next point before pushing towards match-point. On the Spartans second crack at match-point, Lieuwen finished it off with a kill.

The teams will meet in the rematch Saturday at 7 p.m. (PT) at the LEC.

Game Notes: The Spartans are 20-4 all-time against the WolfPack…TWU was coming off its first loss of the regular season last weekend against Saskatchewan…TWU has won 16 straight matches against the WolfPack, including the regular season and playoffs.

-TW-