LANGLEY, B.C. – The No. 1-ranked Trinity Western Spartans earned their eighth straight win, beating Saskatchewan 3-0 (31-29, 25-16, 25-23) Saturday at the Langley Events Centre. 

Third-year middle Jackson Howe (Calgary) led TWU with 13 kills while hitting .579, while fourth-year Eric Loeppky (Steinbach, Man.) had 12 kills and fifth-year Jacob Kern (Edmonton) had 10 kills.

Daven Pascal had a team-high eight kills and Dylan Mortensen had seven kills while setter CJ Gavlas had 26 assists. 

The first set was a battle, with the teams going back and forth well beyond 25 points. The Huskies took a 16-11 lead only to see TWU fight back with a 5-0 run to even the set. From there, neither team held more than a one-point lead until the Spartans ended the set at 31-29. Saskatchewan had a chance at set-point at 24-23, but that was the Huskies lone opportunity to end the set before, eventually, a block from TWU's Eshenko finished it for TWU. 

The Spartans took their efficiency to another level in the second set, as TWU hit .696 and had a sideout percentage of 94 per cent. Saskatchewan was also efficient on the attack, hitting .438 and committing only one error, but the Huskies had just eight kills to TWU's 18.

The third set was tight throughout, as, similar to the end of the first set, neither team took anything more than a two-point lead from start to finish. With Saskatchewan holding a 22-21 lead, Kaden Gamache (Abbotsford, B.C.) entered the contest to serve, lifting TWU to a 23-22 lead. Saskatchewan tied it at 23-23, but after a Huskies serving error, Howe buried the match-winning kill. 

Over the course of the contest, TWU hit .400 as a team, while Saskatchewan was held to .318. Both teams had six blocks each.