Port Coquitlam’s Ryan Sclater had 24 kills as he led the Trinity Western Spartans to a 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 28-30, 25-20) victory over the Brandon Bobcats at the Langley Events Centre last week.
Despite hitting .205 as a team and collecting seven blocks to the visitors’ 11.5 blocks, the Spartans edged Brandon in a four-setter to improve to 17-2 on the season, good enough for second place. The Bobcats dropped to 11-8 with the loss.
“I thought Brandon had a really good plan,” said Spartans head coach Ben Josephson. “Statistically, they’re the best blocking and defensive team in the league thus far and they showed it again tonight.”
After TWU took the first two sets convincingly, the Bobcats extended the match with an emotionally-charged third set. In the fourth set, the Spartans opened a 6-1 lead and, with Sclater collecting nine kills in the set, TWU held an advantage the rest of the way.
Things got off to a strong start for the club.
The Spartans won the first set in convincing fashion, taking the opener by eight points. Despite only hitting .171, the Spartans held the Bobcats to a .000 efficiency and had a 3-0 edge in aces.
In the second set, Sclater collected seven kills and didn’t commit a single attacking error to help the home side to a six-point win. Hitting .343 as a team, TWU ran away with the set, holding the Bobcats to a .269 attacking efficiency.
With Sclater’s performance overall, he matched his career-high for kills in a match. The fifth-year student previously put up 24 kills against Mount Royal in 2014.
He also continued to rise up the Canada West record books, moving into ninth in all-time career kills. Sclater, who now has 1,106 kills in five years with the club, passed former Bobcat Sam Tuivai, who was previously ninth with 1,094 kills.
After Sclater, it was first-year Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) helping lead TWU’s offence with 13 kills while the Spartans middle attack combined for 13 kills and just two attacking error, with Aaron Boettcher (Surrey, B.C.) collecting seven kills and Pearce Eshenko (Banff, Alta.) nabbing six kills.
