The statistics favoured the Trinity Western Spartans in almost all the categories, but for the second straight season, it was the Western Mustangs prevailing in a five-set shocker.
The Mustangs won 3-2 in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national men's volleyball championship quarter-finals at the University of Calgary's Jack Simpson Gym on Thursday (Feb. 27).
Western also defeated Trinity Western in the 2013 CIS quarter-finals.
"I feel heartbroken for our seniors," said Trinity Western coach Ben Josephson, who the day before was named .
"We weren't able to advance in the tournament in their final year."
The Spartans dropped the first set 25-21 but won the next two, 25-22 and 25-19. And Trinity Western was at match point in the fourth set at 24-23.
But the Mustangs fought back to stay alive and won the set 27-25.
Again in the fifth set, Trinity Western was serving for the match at 14-13 but failed to convert and Western scored the final three points to win the set 16-14 and take the quarter-final 3-2.
The Spartans either were tied or led in every statistical category.
They out-scored the Mustangs 110 to 109 in total points, had a .301 hitting percentage compared to .215, had six aces compared to five, led 56-55 in set assists, and led in blocks by a significant advantage, 19 to 8.
But what really cost Trinity Western was committing 20 service errors compared to just a dozen for the Mustangs.
Lucas Van Berkel and Nick Del Bianco 鈥� who were named CIS first and second team all-stars, respectively 鈥� had 18 kills apiece for the Spartans.
And Adam Schriemer, who was named CIS rookie of the year and to the all-rookie team, had 48 assists and was in on seven blocks.
