LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western's men's volleyball team opened the Canada West Playoffs in perfect fashion Thursday, defeating Mount Royal in straight-sets (25-17, 25-16, 25-19) at the Langley Events Centre.
 
The defending national champion Spartans, which finished this season atop the conference standings with a 20-2 regular season record, will go for the series sweep Friday (8 p.m.) at home. 
 
Jacob Kern (Edmonton) led the Spartans on attack, hitting .474 while contributing a game-high 10 kills and five digs. The Spartans also got seven kills apiece from Pearson Eshenko (Banff, Alta.) and Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.), while setter Derek Epp (Saskatoon, Sask.) added 31 assists.
 
Visiting Mount Royal were led by outside hitter Chris Byam, who added a team-high nine kills along with four digs. Keal Prince had the lone service ace in the match for the Cougars, while Luis Lange added six kills. 
 
After taking the opening point in the first set off a Jesse Elser (Calgary) ace, TWU wouldn't look back as it held the lead for the entirety of the set before winning it 25-17. The Spartans hit .381 in the set, with Kern adding four kills and Epp adding 10 assists. Mount Royal's Byam had three kills and three digs apiece in the opening set.
 
The Cougars then kept pace with the Spartans to open the second. After falling behind 2-0, Mount Royal would match TWU as the set went on to sit back just a single point at 10-9. TWU would then pick up four consecutive points with Loeppky at the service line, taking charge and winning the second set 25-16. The Spartans hit .500 (12-2-20) in the second while Mount Royal hit .179 (10-5-28).
 
After both teams traded points evenly through the 16 points at 8-8, the Spartans broke out offensively to score 10 of 14 points to take an 18-12 lead. TWU would then close out the match with a 25-19 third set victory. Trent Mounter had three kills for the Cougars in the set, while Loeppky and Kern each adding three kills for the Spartans.
 
TWU hit .364 (33-9-66) in the match compared to Mount Royal's .167 (27-15-72). The Spartans held a 10-1 edge in service aces. 
 
QUOTABLE
Ben Josephson – TWU Head Coach
 
"It's always nice to win a playoff opener in straight-sets. This next month of volleyball, if we get to play that long, is gruelling. So, any time you can finish a game in three sets you take it. I thought the way we executed tonight was very efficient – it was a professional mindsight by our team to come in here and get our business done.
 
"This is where the fun now begins with the Canada West playoffs. It's a best-of-three series against a great coaching staff. They had a really nice plan today, and now that they have seen how we'll respond to that I know they're going to have a bunch of stuff ready for Friday's match. It's also not our first playoff series, so we have some tricks we're looking forward to rolling out tomorrow. We did what we had to tonight, and tomorrow we're going to have to be even better."     
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans recently wrapped up the regular season splitting games on the road against Thompson Rivers. TWU finished atop the conference standings at 20-2, while Mount Royal concluded the season as the 8^th seed with a 9-13 record.
• The win improves TWU to 15-2 all-time against Mount Royal, recently winning both regular season matchups earlier this season (Jan. 10-11). 
• Mount Royal had just one lead in the match, an 8-7 edge in the third set.

 
NEXT UP
The Spartans will look for the series win as they once again take on Mount Royal in Game 2 Friday (8 p.m.) 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-