VANCOUVER – The Trinity Western Spartans demonstrated their potent attack in a 3-0 victory over UBC at War Memorial Gym.

TWU (17-1) has now won 16 consecutive games and sit atop the Canada West standings by a six-point margin. The Thunderbirds (13-5) are two points back of Alberta (14-4) for third.
 
The Spartans finished the night hitting .510 with 31 kills, as Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) led the way with 11 kills and three aces for TWU. Jesse Elser (Calgary) made his presence felt with nine kills and two aces with three digs in the victory.
 
UBC's Matt Neaves had a team-high 10 kills and Coltyn Liu returned to action with eight kills and an ace.
 
The Spartans sprinted out to a 20-8 lead in the opening set on a monsterous back row kill by Jacob Kern, and Loeppky lifted TWU to their first set point by punishing a T-Bird free ball before Eshenko closed out the first set 25-9. 
 
UBC bounced back in the second set, and with the score tied 12-12 Neaves exploded on a cross-court kill to go up one. The visitors responded with an Elser kill and Jackson Howe unleashed off the block to give TWU a 20-16 advantage. Neaves came through again for the 'Birds with a kill to make it 23-21 Spartans and Michael Dowhaniuk brought the 'Birds within one at 23-22 before Zec Johnson's serve sailed long. The Thunderbirds stayed alive on a Jacob Kern (Edmonton) service error, but the Spartans took the second set on a UBC service error at 25-23.
 
Neaves tied up the third set at 10-10 on a kill but back-to-back T-Bird errors put TWU back on top, and Loeppky ripped an ace to force a UBC timeout. The visitors continued to roll, and Elser teed off down the line to give the Spartans a match point at 24-17 before winning it at 25-18.

QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
"Coming out of last night there were a few things we didn't quite do as well as we wanted. Last night UBC was better than us in transition, and a part of that is just the way that they play – but in doing so they made transition very difficult for us. We identified a few things we can do better in the transition phase, talked about how our blocking wasn't very good, and that wasn't much better tonight.

"Both of these teams came in with the No. 1 and No. 2 offences, and the only way to handle a good offence is by getting serves off the net. Both teams were serving tough and missing a lot last night, whereas tonight both teams served tough and they missed a lot. We got off to a great start in the first set and carried that over into the second. 

"The warden had a great match today, and so did Eric. We have a lot of special players playing this weekend and it was great to see. We talked a lot about how this series was very much a practice for playoffs, learning things and treating it that way. The cool part is, with the wins this weekend it doesn't look like we'll have to hit the road in the playoffs until about the third week.

"The atmosphere was unbelievable here tonight - that was one of the best regular season Canada West crowds we had seen in a long time."

NOTABLE
•    TWU's Eric Loeppky now sits just 30 kills back of Nicholas Del Bianco (2010-2014) for sole possession of third all-time in program kills.  
•    The Spartans last loss in conference play came Oct. 19, 2019 on the road against Alberta (3-2). 
•    Prior to the weekend, TWU last met UBC in preseason play at the Blue Team Cup, falling 3-1 at home (Oct. 5, 2019). 

NEXT UP
The Spartans return home to face Brandon (11-5) Friday (Jan. 31) and Saturday (Feb. 1) 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.
 
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