KAMLOOPS, British Columbia - The Trinity Western men's volleyball team rallied from a one-set deficit to win its first match of the New Year, beating Japanese side Budo International 3-1 (24-26, 25-18, 25-11, 25-20) Saturday morning in the Spartans first game of Thompson Rivers' McDonald's International Tournament at the Tournament Capital Centre.

The Spartans collected 23 blocks in the match, overwhelming a smaller Budo group and cruising to a convincing win.

Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) led the way offensively with 11 kills but it was the blocking of Levi Wolthuis (Carbondale, Alta), who had 11 blocks, and Daniel Grant (Chetwynd, B.C.) and Tyler Heppell (Langley), who each had 10 blocks, that proved to be the difference. Wolthuis and first-year Riley Vander Meulen (Edmonton) both finished with seven kills and one attack error.

Kotaro Ono led Budo with 15 kills and 11 digs.

"The first game was a little sloppy on our side," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. "We made a number of errors early, but our opponent had great foot speed and ball control and because they were a little bit smaller, our block had a hard time figuring them out. But it was really cool to play against a style of volleyball that we never see in Canada. We were big and physical and they were small and quick. But slowly our block figured it out and overall it was a productive first game for us."

The Spartans will play UBC Okanagan in their second game of the tournament Saturday at 5 p.m.

-TW-