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Going For Gold
For the fourth year in a row, the Trinity Western men’s volleyball team will play for Canada West gold and for the sixth straight season, the Spartans will compete in the CIS national championship tournament.
This after TWU beat Brandon 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 21-25, 25-22) in the conference semi-finals at the University of Alberta.
After dropping the third set but still leading 2-1, the Spartans trailed 9-4 in the fourth set and momentum appeared to be shifting the Bobcats way.
However, with Canada West Second Team All-Star Ryan Sclater leading the way thanks to a pair of kills, the Spartans responded with a 6-0 run to take a 10-9 lead.
TWU, who saw both Sclater and Canada West Player of the Year Nick Del Bianco earn six kills in the fourth set alone, never trailed the rest of the way.
With the Spartans on their second opportunity at match point, Sclater earned the winning kill to give TWU the victory and an opportunity to play for the conference title and in national championship tournament.
This will be the eighth time in program history that the Spartans have played for the Canada West title. In their previous seven gold medal matches, TWU is 2-5, having most recently won in 2012.
The Spartans will play the winner of Friday’s second semi-final, which features Alberta and UBC.
With the win, which is TWU’s 16th in a row, the Spartans earned a trip to the national tournament for the 10th time since joining the CIS in 1999.
Del Bianco led the way for TWU with 18 kills and a tidy .366 hitting percentage while also collecting nine digs, two aces and four blocks.
Sclater finished the match with 13 kills while Daniel Grant had six kills and a match-high eight blocks and Canada West Libero of the Year Tyler Koslowsky had a season-high 20 digs.
Setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) recorded 41 assists while the entire squad netted an impressive 15 blocks.
Canada West First Team All-Star Sebastien Steigmeier had a game-high 19 kills for Brandon to go with two aces, while Second Team All-Star Sam Tuivai added 13 kills and setter David Stasica put up a game-high 49 assists.
The opening set was even for the familiar foes until the Spartans began pulling away after the technical timeout, garnering a 6-0 run getting the score to 22-16.
At set point, a bad set error by Stasica handed TWU the set the Spartans defence then took control to open the second and TWU opened a quick 6-2 lead.
Although the Bobcats tried to shift the momentum several times, the Spartans just kept playing their game, going point-for-point with their opponents before Tuivai’s jump serve went long to make it 24-18.
Then, fifth-year middle Branden Schmidt fired one off Tuivai in the back row and high into the crowd to take the set.
Brandon fought back hard in the third set and managed to nab a 16-15 lead at the technical timeout after a 6-1 run.
Three consecutive kills by Del Bianco got the Spartans back on top by two, but Steigmeier fueled a 7-1 run, with three kills of his own, to help the Bobcats earn their first set of the afternoon.
With the momentum squarely behind the Bobcats, Brandon took a 9-4 lead early in the fourth set.
However a resilient TWU side continued to battle and the Spartans rallied to take a 10-9 lead.
Delivering a half-dozen kills in the in the second half of the final set, Del Bianco spun a cross-court attack down the net and just inside the far line making it 23-21.
Brandon’s ace Roy Ching while in the back row served an ace making it 24-21 for the Spartan’s.
Sclater capped off the proceedings with a match-winning kill that ricocheted off a Brandon defender and out of the Bobcats reach.
Game Notes:
Friday’s contest against the Bobcats was a rematch of last year’s Canada West semi-final that saw the Spartans win 3-0.
This is the third straight year TWU has played Brandon in the Final Four, as the Spartans and Bobcats battled for the conference title in 2013, with Brandon winning Gold on a four-set victory.
Thanks to mark Janzen Assist Sports Information Director for Trinity Western for the info.