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.
Image Credit: Contributed/UBCO
January 22, 2017 - 2:55 PM
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
News from © iNFOnews, 2017