QUEBEC CITY – The fourth time was the charm for Trinity Western as the Spartans beat the Brandon Bobcats 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-19) Sunday afternoon to capture the U SPORTS men's volleyball national championship.
The Bobcats beat Trinity all three times they played earlier this season, including the Canada West conference championship, but Sunday's national final at Université Laval went in Trinity's favour after taking a giant risk in the serve and pass game.
The Spartans work from the service line was the difference as tournament MVP Eric Loeppky and the rest of the Trinity side used booming serves to keep the Bobcats out of system all day.
"I felt that Trinity was going to come out the mentality that and try to serve the cover off the ball to get us out of system that was their best opportunity for success and they did it to a T," said Bobcats coach
Grant Wilson.
"They came with tremendous service pressure from right at the start right until the end. They had some balls that painted the line, and they had some balls that our guys struggled in serve receive a little bit and we just never got into system the way we needed to get in system."
Loeppky registered a match high four aces, half of his team's total, to go with 11 kills before being named player of the match.
The Bobcats were unable to create any momentum as the Spartans shut down Brandon's attempts as soon as the Bobcats went on a run in each set.
Tournament all-star and Brandon product
Seth Friesen finished with a team-high 10 kills.
"It was a great season. I'm just so proud of the guys. It's just really unfortunate that we couldn't pull through today," said Friesen.
Rookie outside hitter
Robin Baghdady joined Friesen on the all-star team.
The two fifth-year captains
Brady Nault and
James Weir were also great in their final matches as Bobcats, as Nault had a team-high eight digs and Weir had four kills on six swings.
The Bobcats bring home the program's second national silver medal, the first coming in 2011 after dropping the national final to the host and gold medalist Trinity Western Spartans.
