LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western fifth-year Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) had 24 kills as he led the No. 2-ranked Spartans to a 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 28-30, 25-20) win over No. 9 Brandon Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

Despite hitting just .205 as a team and collecting just seven blocks to the Bobcats 11.5 blocks, the Spartans edged Brandon in a four-setter to improve to 17-2 on the season. The Bobcats dropped to 11-8.

After TWU took the first two sets convincingly, the Bobcats extended the match with an emotionally-charged third set. In the fourth set, the Spartans opened a 6-1 lead and, with Sclater collecting nine kills in the set, TWU held an advantage the rest of the way.

"I thought Brandon had a really good plan," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "Statistically, they're the best blocking and defensive team in the league thus far and they showed it again tonight. They blocked the ball really well. They defended the ball incredibly well. They kept balls alive that we're not used to seeing alive and we handled that very poorly mentally. We got frustrated by their play and it affected our play."

After Sclater, it was first-year Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) helping lead TWU's offence with 13 kills while the Spartans middle attack combined for 13 kills and just two attacking error, with Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) collecting seven kills and Pearce Eshenko (Banff, Alta.) nabbing six kills.

Elliott Viles led the Bobcats attack with 17 kills and Seth Friesen had 13 kills. Brandon was playing without Roy Ching, who has been averaging four kills per set this year and is sixth all-time in Canada West for career kills.

With Sclater's performance, he matched his career-high for kills in a match. He previously put up 24 kills against Mount Royal Nov. 16, 2014. He also continued to rise up the Canada West record books, moving into ninth in all-time career kills. Sclater, who now has 1,106 kills in his five-year career, passed former Bobcat Sam Tuivai, who was previously ninth with 1,094 kills.

"If you want to be great at this game, you have to control what's on your side of the net and not what's on their side," Josephson said. "Their half of the court affected ours. That's error number one and that summarized the game. They played with great passion and great defensive ability and we did not match it with mental focus and stability. That's why the game turned into a slugfest in the last two sets. If we're going to be a great team, we need to find a way to play our way and keep our focus on our system and playing our brand of volleyball. I'm pleased we won the game, but we don't care about wins and losses. We care about doing the right things at this stage in the season. Our opponents put us to a mental test and we failed the test. Tomorrow, we need to pass the test."

In a first-set defensive battle, the Spartans earned the win in convincing fashion, taking the opener by eight points. Despite only hitting .171, the Spartans held the Bobcats to a .000 efficiency and had a 3-0 edge in aces.

Sclater took over in the second set, collecting seven kills and didn't commit a single attacking error to help the home side to a six-point win. Hitting .343 as a team, TWU ran away with the set, holding the Bobcats to a .269 attacking efficiency.

Brandon took a 3-0 lead in the third set only to see TWU rally shortly thereafter, eventually going up 10-6. Late in the set, the Bobcats clawed back into the set, taking a 22-21 kill have a monster by Jacob Reid and James Weir. From there, the teams traded points beyond 25, before a Viles block finally settled the score in favour of the Bobcats. Brandon turned the efficiency tables in the set, hitting .282 compared to TWU's .220. Both Sclater and Viles had five kills in the set.

The Spartans took an early lead in fourth set and never trailed. With Sclater leading the TWU attack, the Spartans held on for the win, hitting .205 as a team. Brandon hit .107 in the final set.

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

Game Notes: The Spartans and Bobcats have split their last four regular season series…the last time TWU earned a weekend sweep was Nov. 11-12, 2011…Brandon has never swept TWU…TWU is 14-7 all-time in the regular season against Brandon.

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