The Trinity Western men’s volleyball team will play in the Canada West Final Four for the seventh straight year after winning Game 3 of the Spartans best-of-three quarter-final series over Calgary 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20) on Sunday.
The Spartans will play top-ranked Alberta in the conference semifinals on March 4 in Edmonton. The top three teams at the Final Four will advance to the CIS national championships at McMaster University Mar. 10-12.
“We’re pumped to win that series,” said Spartans coach Ben Josephson.
“Going on the road in the playoffs is no easy task and our kids proved, over the course of the weekend, they were up to that task. In tournament play, the goal is always to survive and advance.
“There’s no more improving or working on stuff. You play the match the way it is that day. Last night, we played clean and were great. Today it got a little bit messy and it became about guts and heart and our kids made a ton of plays when they mattered.
“Both teams had key guys playing through injury and an epic playoff match ensued and we were fortunate to be on the positive side. Now, we’re excited to get to work on U of A.”
Sunday’s win capped a comeback that saw the Spartans rally to win the series after dropping Game 1. The Spartans took Game 2 with an emphatic three-set win Saturday before capturing the series on Sunday afternoon. All three games were played in Calgary.
After rallying from a five-point deficit, 14-9, to win the third set, the Spartans roared out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth set and held off the Dinos the rest of the way. After the Dinos staved off TWU’s first crack at match point, a Calgary attacking error sent the Spartans on in the post-season.
Prior to this weekend, the Spartans had never won a Canada West quarter-final match on the road. They were 0-8 all-time in quarter-final matches away from Langley.
The Spartans Aaron Boettcher had an afternoon to remember as he put up an errorless nine kills, while hitting .529 and adding a match-high eight blocks. Ryan Sclater led TWU with 17 kills while earning five blocks while Blake Scheerhoorn had 13 kills Adam Schriemer had 34 assists and 10 digs while libero Tyler Koslowsky had 11 digs.
TWU had 13 blocks to Calgary’s 5.5.
Calgary had won game one 3-1 (25-19,25-18,15-25,25-19) before Trinity Western stayed alive with a 3-0 (25-14,25-9,29-27) straight-sets victory.
