The Trinity Western Spartans 16-match winning streak came to an end in the gold medal game of the Canada West championships.
The Spartans fell 3-1 (26-24,25-20,25-27,25-20) to the host Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.
Trinity Western was up in the fourth set before Alberta rattled off a 9-1 run that effectively gave the Golden Bears the set and the match.
“Against an opponent like Alberta, you have to play your best match and I thought we had one of our weaker performances of this semester,” said Trinity Western coach Ben Josephson.
“As evidenced, that’s not good enough to win a conference championship.”
The Spartans were led by Canada West MVP Nick Del Bianco who had 15 kills, four aces and five blocks. Ryan Sclater, a second team conference all-star, added 13 kills, a team high 11 digs and four blocks.
Despite TWU collecting 18.5 blocks to Alberta’s 12, it was the Bears efficiency that turned the tables as the home side hit .291 while the Spartans were held to a .188 hitting percentage. Alberta also had a 51-37 edge in digs.
“That was two good teams playing today,” said Alberta coach Terry Danyluk, “They were a team we knew would block well, which they did, so we had to do some other things well, which we did. We out-dug them by 15, which is the other side of the coin because I didn’t think we could out-block them but I thought if we could hit smart against them and out-dig them we could win, and that’s what happened.”
Both teams advance to this week’s CIS national championships, which are being hosted by the University of Saskatchewan.
The Spartans are the fifth seed and will face No. 4 Laval Rouge et Or in the quarter-finals.
The Trinity Western women’s team — who won the Canada West banner (see page 19) — will also face Laval at the CIS championships.
Josephson said he is confident his team will correct the mistakes they displayed against Alberta.
“The good thing is that we know what we have to do and we have a few days to sort things out,” he said.
“We’re excited to get back to work and on to the next challenge.”
In the Canada West Final Four semifinals, the Spartans defeated the Brandon Bobcats 3-1 (25-19,25-19,21-25,25-22).
