Alyssa Etsell, University of Manitoba Bisons Sports Information
WINNIPEG— No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans continue their winning ways with a four-set road win by a 3-1 (19-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-18) score over the No. 9 Manitoba Bisons in a hard-fought men's volleyball game on Jan. 12 at the Investors Group Athletic Centre.
"It's always tough when you're playing the number one team in the country. We started really well. They have a lot of weapons there and we just couldn't find a way to stop all of them," said Bisons head coach, Garth Pischke. "I thought we played very well."
With the away win, Trinity Western's record moves to 14-1 with a ten match conference winning streak and Manitoba falls to 6-9.
The Spartans broke from back-and-forth play midway through the fourth set to lead 14-11 and continued to capitalize off of strong blocks and spikes for the remainder of the game.
Riley Vander Meulen finished a rally for the Spartans, securing them a comfortable lead at 19-15, while an out-of-bound play by the home team put them within five of set point. A calculated spike from Eric Loeppky moved them up to two points to set point and they won the final set 25-18.
Although Manitoba started the third set strong, Trinity Western caught up fast to play a very back-and-forth game. Throughout the set, the Bisons worked hard to play with the Spartans but they capitalized off their strong blocking skills and spikes unanswered by the home team.
A series of killer spikes let the Spartans move to within one point of set, eventually leading to a 25-20 win thanks to a kill earned from a wall formed by Loeppky and Pearson Eshenko
Trinity Western led in kills and blocks in the third set with Loeppky getting 16 kills and 6 blocks.
Trinity Western shut the hosts down with intense blocks and aces as the Herd struggled with their serve receives in the latter half of the second set. The Spartans won the set off a serve error by the home team, 25-16.
The Herd led early in the first set and maintained their lead throughout, eventually winning it 25-19.
A frustrated Ben Josephson, Trinity Western head coach, called back-to-back time outs as the home team surged to 20-13.
Ryan Bergen sent a spike kill into the back pocket of the court. A block by Brendan Warren got an untouched kill for the home side which was followed by another block that sent the ball straight down on the Spartans side moving the home team within two points of set (23-15).
The Spartans tried to pick up momentum as the set point neared, getting a five-point streak but a strike sent into the ground let the Bisons to win the set.
Both teams will face each other again tomorrow at 6 p.m. CT. Watch the match live online at CanadaWest.tv.
Game leaders:
Kills:
Manitoba – Scott Vercaigne, 13
Spartans – Eric Loeppky, 22
Digs:
Manitoba – Adam DeJonckheere, 7
Spartans – Carter Bergen, 9
Blocks:
Manitoba – Brendan Warren, 6
Spartans – Pearson Eshenko & Eric Loeppky, 7