LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western lost their opening match of Blue Team Cup, falling 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-22) against visiting UBC Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. 
 
The Spartans, who were playing their first home game of the preseason, saw the Thunderbirds take early leads in all three sets on route to the victory. UBC held 12-8 leads in all three sets and while the Spartans battled back to close the gap down the stretch each time, it wasn't quite enough, as the visitors took the match without dropping a set.

QUOTABLE
Adam Schriemer – TWU Head Coach
"That game starts and ends with terminal serve. If we serve just above 50 per cent, we're not going to win a game. That's the key piece we need to focus on for tomorrow. We need to serve in at a higher rate, so we can actually evaluate how we are as a volleyball team. 

"I thought we were okay systematically and we were okay from a defence perspective when the ball was in play, but our sample size was so little to know if that was actually true because of how little we nine-metre served in tonight."
 
UP NEXT
TWU will host UBC Okanagan Friday at 7 p.m. in the second of their three-match Blue Team Cup schedule. The Spartans will play Mount Royal Saturday at 6 p.m. to wrap up the round robin style Blue Team Cup.  
 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby and women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 33 Canada West team championships.
 
-TW-