LANGLEY - The No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team fell in straight sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-14) to the No. 1 Trinity Western Spartans Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
UBC falls to 10-9 with the loss. That, combined with a Brandon victory, leaves the Thunderbirds in a fifth place tie with Calgary in the Canada West standings.
A top-four finish means UBC would get to host its first round playoff series.
The Trinity Western win improves the Spartans to 18-1 on the season and leaves them one win shy of capturing the Canada West regular season title for the first time in program history.
The T-Birds were led by Sjur Godo, who had nine kills, one block and an ace and
Jarrid Ireland, who had seven kills and six digs.
But was hampered by 11 serving errors to go along with a hitting percentage of .111.
The Spartans hit .493 on the night, including .667 in the third set. They were led by Rudy Verhoeff, who had 11 kills, five digs, two blocks and an ace.
In the first set, with the score 10-9, the Spartans went on a 6-2 run that gave the home side a five-point lead. From there, they kept rolling to a 25-15 win.
The second set was the closest of the three as UBC led for most of the early stages. With the score tied 4-4, the T-Birds went on a 3-0 run to earn a three-point lead. The T-Birds, playing their best set of the night, managed to keep their three-point lead up until 14-11.
That's when the Spartans went on a 4-0 run that gave them a 15-14 lead, that the home team would not relinquish.
While UBC kept it close thanks to four-kill sets from both Ireland and Godo, they couldn't keep up with the efficient machine that was Trinity Western on this night. After a serving error from UBC, the Spartans won 25-22. In the third set, Trinity Western took its game to another level as they didn't commit a single attacking error in the set.
The Spartans were ahead from the outset and never looked back.
UBC and Trinity Western will play in a rematch Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.
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