KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans men's volleyball team defeated Thompson Rivers in four sets (27-29, 25-14, 25-23, 25-21) Friday at Tournament Capital Centre.

TWU (20-1) has now won 19 consecutive games, while the loss drops the Wolfpack to a 7-14 record.  The match also saw Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) record his 1000^th kill in the first set. 
 
The Spartans were led by Jesse Elser (Calgary) and Jacob Kern (Edmonton), as both had 13 kills while Mathias Elser (Calgary) had 12 kills. Derek Epp (Saskatoon, Sask.) notched 46 assists for the Spartans, while Jesse Elser had 11 digs.

Thompson Rivers was led by Nimo Benne, who had nine kills and six digs, while Sam Taylor Parks had nine kills. Charlie Bringloe had four service aces, a block and five digs for the Wolfpack.
Despite the Spartans recording 15 kills in the first set, Thompson Rivers narrowly took the opening set by a 29-27 margin.
 
TWU then hit an impressive .714 in the second to storm back and take its first set of the game 25-14. The road side then continued rolling, edging out the Wolfpack 25-23 to take a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth set. 
 
The Spartans then closed out the game with a fourth set victory, hitting .500 (14-3-22) and winning 25-21.
 
QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
 
"Thompson Rivers played great today, and that was highlighted in their defence. I thought our servers peppered them pretty good, but our misses also stacked up. They served us tough and although our passers struggled at times with their serves we also handled a lot of their serves really well. 
 
"Matthias had a really great match swiping the ball today. We wanted to make sure we had all our bases covered with any potential issues, and with just a couple weeks training on the left Matthias contributed in a big way. Jordan Schnitzer got going in the third set as well and looked really good. I'm also really proud of Eric getting his 1000^th kill today, he's a really special player and he just continues to show that to us."
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans first set loss was just their tenth all season (58-10).
• TWU outside Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) recently earned conference athlete of the month for January. He came into the weekend second in conference kills-per set (3.91).  
• The Wolfpack's win-streak was snapped at four consecutive games.

 
NEXT UP
TWU will close out the regular season Saturday (7 p.m. PT) at Tournament Capital 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-