KELOWNA, British Columbia – Playing on the road for the first time in 2017, the No. 1 Trinity Western men's volleyball team continued to roll as the Spartans won 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-17) over UBC Okanagan Friday night.

With an early serving run from TWU's Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.), the visitors set the tone for the night and from there, the Spartans (14-1) were largely the better side throughout the evening.

TWU held the advantage in hitting percentage, as the Spartans finished at .348 while holding the Heat (4-11) to .247.

The Spartans Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) was the match leader in kills, finishing with 14. Behind him for the Spartans were Jacob Kern (Edmonton) and Blake Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.), who each had six kills.

Lars Bornemann was the best Heat hitter on the night, finishing with nine kills and a hitting percentage of .333. Alex Swiatlowski finished with six kills, while Kyle Hinchey and Joshua Harvey each had five.

"It was a good test tonight," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "There are a lot of things we can work on, but it was a really emotional game and you can tell it meant a lot to both teams."

The first set started with the Spartans quickly taking control, stringing together six straight points to go up 9-2. The Heat scored three straight to make it 12-8, but TWU didn't let up as they jumped ahead 16-10 at the technical timeout. From there, TWU continued to cruise, scoring the final two points on consecutive kills from Scheerhoorn and Pearce Eshenko (Banff, Alta.).

"In the first set, we got off to a great serving run from Aaron but then our opponents played quite well and it was a pretty neutral game after our run," Josephson said.

The second set saw the Spartans jump ahead early again, scoring the first three points on three kills. A four-point run that included three Heat attack errors put the visitors up 10-5, before UBCO put away five straight to pull within two at 14-12. The Spartans were up 16-13 at the technical timeout, and a pair of three-point runs were the difference from then on as the visitors rolled to the 25-17 set win.

"In the second set, the game was super tight midway through and then we finally sided out Kyle Hinchey, who I coached with the youth team in the summer," Josephson said. "He's an awesome young player and he's going to be really special. It was fun to see how much he's improved since I had him in the summer. He lit us up. But we recovered and then separated with some good volleyball."

The third set was much the same as the first two, with the Spartans coming out swinging. TWU went up 7-4 before pushing its lead to 16-11 at the technical timeout. Another three-point run that included two Sclater kills and a service ace from Boettcher stretched the lead to 19-12, before the Spartans scored their final point on a Heat service error to close it out 25-17.

"In the third set, we separated in the early section and never looked back," Josephson said. "We were a little sloppy offensively and I don't think our block did a great job, but credit to them because they were hitting smart."

The Heat and the Spartans will play again Saturday night, with first serve set to go at 7 p.m. (PT) in the UBC Okanagan gymnasium.

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