The Trinity Western Spartans ensured themselves of a home playoff date with a pair of victories.
The men’s volleyball team dispatched the Calgary Dinos in straight sets both Friday and Saturday at the Langley Events Centre to improve to 15-5.
It means the fifth-ranked Spartans will host a best-of-three quarter-final playoff series Feb. 14 to 16 at the LEC.
The Spartans won 25-21, 25-22 and 28-26 and prevailed despite 21 attack errors and a dozen serving errors.
“It was just a weird game; we had some odd bounces (and) our opponents were scrappy and never let us build momentum by getting aces or roof blocks early on,” said coach Ben Josephson.
“It was hard to get momentum going; it was a bit of a dead night, so given the environment, I thought our guys played well.”
The team was led defensively by John Wiebe, who tied his own team record for digs in a three-set match with 19.
The offence was keyed by Nick Del Bianco and his 15 kills, including eight in the first half alone. Steven Marshall added a dozen kills while Dan Jansen Van Doorn (seven blocks) and Lucas Van Berkel (five blocks) led the defence, which out-blocked the Dinos 12-3.
Friday’s match saw TWU win 25-18, 25-19 and 25-21 as the team had 11 aces, including five from Del Bianco.
Marshall also had a big game with 12 kills and just one error for a .579 hitting percentage. He also had five digs and two blocks.
Brad Kufske added nine kills and a career-high four aces.
The team closes the Canada West regular season on the road this weekend with a pair of matches against first-place Alberta (19-1).
