LANGLEY, B.C. – In a rematch of last year's U SPORTS championship final, it was once again UBC getting the better of the No. 2-ranked Spartans, as the Thunderbirds earned a 3-1 (16-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-16) win Friday at the Langley Events Centre. 
 
After TWU won the first set in convincing fashion, the T-Birds bounced in the second set, launching an impressive performance that saw UBC cruise to the four-set victory. The T-Birds (7-10) extended their winning streak to five matches, and moved into a tie with Manitoba for the final playoff Canada West spot.
 
Danny Aspenlieder had a team-high 11 kills for UBC, with Coltyn Liu and Matt Neaves adding nine kills each. Liu also had a match-high four aces. Setter Zec Johnson had 36 assists, four blocks and two aces. 
 

TWU's Jacob Kern led the Spartans with 12 kills, while Eric Loeppky had seven kills to go with three aces. Aaron Boettcher had four blocks, three aces and three kills. 
 
UBC improved its attacking percentage in all four sets, opening with a .238 percentage in the first set before eventually hitting .400 in the fourth set for a .303 hitting percentage on the night. The Spartans finished the night hitting .121. 
 
The Spartans put together a strong opening set, earning 12 kills while hitting .381 as a team and nabbing three aces. With the set tied 6-6, the Spartans went on a 4-0 run to take the lead for good. From there, TWU ran away with a nine-point win.
 
The T-Birds found their form in the second set, earning 15 kills en route to a six-point win. The visitors took a 10-7 lead and never trailed the rest of the set. With Aspenlieder leading UBC with five kills in the set, the T-Birds had three aces to three service errors, while it was TWU committing six serving errors without an ace in the set.
 

UBC went ahead 6-4 in the third set only to see TWU respond with four straight points to take an 8-6 lead. Swinging back, the T-Birds tallied five of the next six points, including three on Liu service aces, to go ahead 11-9 before extending their advantage to four points at the technical timeout. The T-Birds continued to roll from there, hitting .350 while holding TWU to .087.
 
The T-Birds raced out to a 9-3 lead in the fourth set, on two kills from Liu and Jordan Deshane and one each from Neaves and Aspenlieder, and the home side never recovered. TWU climbed back within three points, at 10-7, but UBC quickly extended its lead to 13-8 before opening a six-point edge at the technical timeout. After that, the T-Birds pulled away for a nine-point win while hitting .400 as a team.
 
The rematch is Saturday at 7 p.m. (PT) back at the LEC.