Saturday night saw Trinity Western take down UBC Okanagan in straight sets, as the Heat were unable to take out the defending national champs in Kelowna.
Men’s Volleyball (Canada West conference match)
Saturday, January 21st, 2017
UBC Okanagan Gymnasium, Kelowna, BC
FINAL 1 2 3 SCORE Trinity Western (15-1) 25 25 25 3 UBC Okanagan (4-12) 12 20 18 0
KELOWNA, BC – The UBC Okanagan Heat men’s volleyball team fell to the defending national champion Trinity Western Spartans by a final score of 3-0 on Saturday night in Kelowna.
Set scores were 25-12, 25-20, and 25-18.
Ryan Sclater led the Spartans with 16 kills, with Blake Scheerhoorn behind him with 12. For the Heat Kyle Hinchey set the pace with a team-high eight kills, and Lars Bornemann finished with six.
As a team, the Spartans were the dominant hitting team. They finished ahead in kills (38-22), hitting percentage (.333 – .062), service aces (8-2), assists (35-20), and blocks (6-3).
The first set saw the Spartans at the top of their game, putting away 11 kills on .348 hitting while holding the Heat to five on -.103. They took control quickly, putting together an eight-point run that included five kills from Ryan Sclater to take the 11-2 lead. The UBCO side weren’t able to put together more than two consecutive points throughout, and the visitors took the set handily, 25-12.
The second set was much closer than the first, with the score 16-13 in favour of the Spartans at the technical time-out. Blake Scheerhoorn’s hitting was key in the latter half of the set, putting away a number of kills to stretch the Trinity lead to six at 21-15. The Heat continued to battle, though, and a pair of big kills from Lars Bornemann and Kyle Hinchey put the Heat down 24-20. Another kill from Sclater closed out the set, as Trinity took it 25-20.
The final set saw the Heat own a lead through the early going, thanks to a run of four-of-five points to jump ahead 6-2. The home side held the lead until the Spartans tied it up at 10-10, then 11-11 before taking back the lead at 12-11. At the technical time-out the Spartans had pulled ahead 16-13, and the Heat only scored consecutive points once from then on as Trinity raised their game again and rolled to the 25-18 set win.
The UBC Okanagan Heat (4-12) have next weekend off, and will play their next matches in the UBC Okanagan gymnasium against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (7-7) on February 3 & 4. The Trinity Western Spartans (15-1) will play their next matches in Edmonton on January 27 & 28 against the University of Alberta Golden Bears (12-2).
~ Grayson Leahy, UBC Okanagan