LANGLEY, B.C. – There will be a new U SPORTS champion in men's volleyball.

The defending champion UBC Thunderbirds, ranked ninth in Canada, fell 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-18) to host Trinity Western Spartans in Game 3 of their Canada West quarter-final series at the Langley Events Centre Saturday night.

The Thunderbirds, who finished at 11-11 in the regular season, forced a deciding Game 3 with a five-set win in Game 2 on Friday night. The loss marks the first time since 2015-16 UBC will not continue past the quarter-finals in the Canada West playoffs.

Rookie outside Matt Neaves led the Thunderbirds with eight kills and three blocks, while fifth-year middle Joel Regehr earned a .500 hitting percentage (5-0-10) in the final match of his university career.

First-year outside Brodie Hofer put a considerable dent in UBC's defence, with an overall hitting percentage of .417, with 14 kills and two aces. A close second was Eric Loeppky with 11 kills and nine digs.
 
The first set saw the Spartans take the lead within the first three points. The momentum continued in the their favour with the noticeable help of Hofer, who took eight of the Spartans 16 kills. Hitting an average of .423 to UBC's .226, the Spartans controlled the T-Birds' 31 attacks, with 12 digs, spread out evenly amongst the team. Neaves and Jordan Deshane combined on a block against Loeppky to get Thunderbirds to within three points at 17-14, but two Spartans points in a row forced UBC to call a timeout trailing 19-14. The visitors weren't about to overcome three more kills from Hofer with the Spartans taking the set 25-20.
 
A closer frame, the second set saw the teams tied until the eighth point, where UBC took a one-point lead on a Michael Dowhaniuk kill, but the Spartans once again pulled away with a 9-3 run. At 14-11, Loeppky served an ace, prompting UBC to call a timeout. The break played in the Spartans favour, as UBC then placed the ball out of bounds on a tip effort. Loeppky took two more serves, from the blocking efforts of Aaron Boettcher and Jacob Kern on UBC's Danny Aspenlieder. UBC earned back the serve, but not before Loeppky regained possession with a back row hit to bring the home team to 17-12. The Spartans extended their lead before closing out the set with a mid-court dump from Loeppky, winning 25-16.
 
Continuing their rhythm into the final set, TWU took over early earning an 8-4 lead and forcing a UBC timeout. The Spartans pulled away, leading 16-10 at the break, which they quickly extended to 18-10. Hofer delivered a final back row attack to end the defending national champions' outstanding second-half and playoff run, 25-18. The Spartans had 14 additional digs in the third set to add to a game total of 34, defending UBC's 30 set attacks. Loeppky and Hofer took five and four more kills apiece, and the Spartans earned four aces from the line.
 
A promising season concludes for the Thunderbirds, an extremely young group that began conference play at 2-10 before winning nine of 10 contests to end the regular season.

Along with Regehr, the team will see Zeid Hamadeh move on with the exhaustion of his university eligibility. Everyone else on the roster has at least two years of eligibility remaining.