LANGLEY, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans got a measure of revenge over the Calgary Dinos Wednesday night, avenging their loss in the 2010 CIS championship final with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 27-25) victory on their home floor in the warm-up event for the 2011 national tournament.

BOX SCORE

The Spartans were the better side in every major statistical category as they outhit Calgary (23.8 per cent to 5.2 per cent), out-killed Calgary (45-28), out-blocked Calgary (10-2.5) and out-dug Calgary (42-36).

And the Spartans' success started from the opening serve.

After Trinity Western's Lucas Van Berkel had only seven kills in the semifinal against Queen's, the big man in the middle had five kills on five attempts in the first set alone to lead the TWU. Although as a team the Spartans only hit 16.1 per cent, it was good enough to get the first set win as Calgary hit even less at 3.2 per cent.

Calgary's Graham Vigrass did have five kills to lead the Dinos but it was on 12 attempts.

The momentum TWU garnered from the first set simply rolled into the second set as the Spartans built a quick 3-1 lead and never looked back. Calgary hung around until it was 15-12, but then TWU really flipped a switch.

The Spartans went on a 10-2 run, one in which four different players got kills, to end the game 25-14. With setter Ben Ball distributing the ball all over the place, TWU ended the second set with Mikiah Schalk leading the team with eight kills and four other Spartans with at least three kills.

While TWU was on a roll, part of their success was thanks to a Calgary team that struggled to muster any offensive consistency, hitting -9.7 per cent in the set.

In the third set, the game was going Calgary's way up until the score read 19-16 for the Dinos. Trinity Western coach Ben Josephson called timeout and out of that TWU scored two quick points and stole momentum.

Mikiah Schalk's serving ace then tied the set 19-19 and the game turned into a dog-fight with TWU pulling it out 27-25 thanks to a pair of late Josh Doornenbal kills and a Schalk kill to finish the game.

Setter Ben Ball led the team with an impressive 43 assists, which is only four off the Spartans record for most assists in a three-set game, which is held by Josh Howatson who had 47 assists against  Calgary Jan. 21, 2006. Doornenbal had a game-high 13 kills, while Mikiah Schalk had 11. Libero Jarrod Offereins finished with 12 digs while Dan Jansen Van Doorn had seven blocks.

For Calgary, it was Vigrass with 10 kills leading the Dinos while Jay Blankenau had 20 assists and Blake Giles had 12 digs.

Calgary takes the weekend off before opening the 2011 portion of their conference schedule next week at home when the UBC Thunderbirds pay a visit to the Jack Simpson Gym for a two-game set Jan. 14-15.

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