LANGLEY, B.C. – The Spartans men's volleyball team picked up its 13^th consecutive victory in conference play by defeating UBC Okanagan in straight sets (25-21, 25-21, 25-17) Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
 
TWU has now won 36 of its last 38 sets against Canada West opponents, as the victory tied for third all-time in program history for total team assists (48) and kills (52) in a 3-set match. 
 
The win improved the Spartans conference best record to 14-1, while the loss dropped winless UBC Okanagan to 0-13.
 
Brodie Hofer (Langley) led the Spartans attack with 12 kills and a .474 hitting percentage, while Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) added 16 kills of his own.
 
Cam Vanderveen had a team-high six kills and eight digs for the Heat, while Jakob Hamilton put up 17 assists.
 
The No. 1 Spartans were matched up evenly with UBC Okanagan through the first set, with both teams trading leads seven times throughout the majority of the set, before TWU broke the tie at 16-15 to ultimately win 25-21. Spartans setter Derek Epp (Saskatoon) had 14 assists in the set, while Loeppky added five kills. TWU held a .270 to .120 edge in hitting percentage.
 
Into the second set both teams once again kept pace with each other, with 12 tie scores including a late score of 20-20. A timely kill from Jacob Kern (Edmonton) then gave the Spartans a late lead, sparking a 5-1 run as TWU took the second set 25-21. TWU hit .281 in the set (16-7-32) compared to UBC Okanagan's .143 (7-4-21).
 
The Spartans continued rolling in the third set, with Mathias Elser (Calgary) leading the way by picking up 17 of his 18 assists in the match to help the Spartans win 25-17. 

TWU hit .346 (52-16-104) in the match compared to UBC Okanagan's .143 (20-10-70).
 
QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
 
"First off, I am pumped to be back here. It was painful having my heart split in two places the last few weeks, having to watch these guys from afar while also enjoying an amazing experience coaching Canadian women. 
 
"We're a long way away from where we have to be to perform. We played all handful of matches in Can Am and out East, and I think our game flow is much better than our skill set. We're essentially now in a backwards training camp, we've played the matches but now we need to learn the skills to support it – and that's really hard on the guys' brains, on their discipline, on us as coaches, because everything is about small details. Once you start playing a bunch of matches you get out of that mindset but now, we're really trying to drill that back into them.
 
"I think tonight was a great example that we're working on some stuff and things are going well, while our basic fundamentals are also letting us down and giving up some big plays. The cool part is that all those things we need to work on are under our control, but that's also the frustrating part in that things under our own control can be our Achilles heel."
 
NOTABLE

• TWU improved to 30-1 all-time against the Heat, most recently defeating UBC Okanagan in straight sets at the Blue Team Cup (Oct. 3, 2019).
• Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) entered the weekend one ace shy of Paul Sanderson's (2007-11) career conference record of 144, set with Brandon.  
• The Spartans program record of kills in a 3-set match is 52, set against Manitoba Jan. 28, 2012 (W 3-0).

 
NEXT UP
The No. 1 Spartans take on the Heat in a rematch Saturday (7 p.m. PT) at the Langley Events Centre. 

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men's hockey and as an independent team in men's rugby. The men's and women's hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.
 
-TW-