LANGLEY, B.C. – For the second night in a row the Trinity Western Spartans proved to be the second best team on the court as they again fell to the defending CIS champion Calgary Dinos 3-0 (29-27, 25-23, 25-21) Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre.

BOX SCORE
 
The Spartans had late leads in both the first two sets but were unable to close out as the Dinos rallied for the win in both and then wrapped up the match with a dominant  third set.

Trinity Western drops its record to 8-4 on the year – essentially ending any hope of hosting Canada West Final Four – while Calgary remains undefeated at 12-0 and atop the Canada West standings.

"We showed a tremendous amount of fight tonight," said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant. "We were down 20-14 in the first set, and that was huge for us to stay in the moment and compete to come back and win it. It was a confidence builder and a sign we could compete point-for-point. That got us going on the right track.

"We had a great weekend, the guys really stayed focused. A great performance by the entire team. Our outside hitters were fantastic, Curtis James and Chris Hoag had a great night, and our block defence worked out very well."

In the opening set, the Spartans were down 8-6 early but then went on what seemed like a set-defining 9-3 run to take a confident 15-11 lead. Trinity Western pushed that to 21-15 and looked impressive doing it.

But then Calgary came back. Down by six and with TWU needing just four points to take the set, the Dinos capitalized on a combination of Spartans errors and a James hot hand to take off on a 9-3 run of their own that tied it up 24-24.

At 27-26, Trinity Western had a chance to take the set but a kill by Calgary's Hoag foiled that plan and the Dinos then snagged the next two points – one on a kill by Graham Vigrass and another on an attack error by TWU's Josh Doornenbal – to win the set 29-27.

And in the second set, it was déjà vu. Once again the Spartans used a mid-set rally to take a lead late, this time it was a 7-1 run to give TWU an 18-15 lead, but once again, we're unable to hang on as the game neared 25 points.

With the score 22-19 in favour of the home side, Calgary when on a 6-1 run – led by James who had two kills – to stun the Spartans 25-23.

After winning the first two sets in dramatic come from behind style, the Dinos did things a little differently in the third set. They took control early and never let go.

Calgary took the first point and never trailed the rest of the way.  Their lead ballooned as big as seven when they went up 22-15 and then cruised to a 25-21 third set win.

The Spartans were led on the attack by Josh Doornenbal, who had 13 kills, and Rudy Verhoeff, who had 10 kills and also added a team-high 11 digs. Setter Ben Ball had a game-high 35 assists and a team-high four blocks.

Calgary's James led his team with 12 kills while Vigrass and Hoag had 10 each. Jay Blankenau led the team with 12 digs and Vigrass also had a game-high five blocks.

Both teams are back in action next weekend with TWU travelling to play Saskatchewan and Calgary returning home to host Thompson Rivers Jan. 28-29.

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