TWU's comeback attempt came to an abrupt halt in the fourth and decisive set.

After a gutsy come-from-behind semifinal win over UBC, the defending Canada West champion Trinity Western men's volleyball team couldn't duplicate the feat in the Canada West final.

The Spartans fell in four sets (25-21, 25-22, 23-25, and 25-15) to the Brandon Bobcats Saturday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.

Just like in their semifinal game against UBC, the Spartans dropped the first two sets before winning the third.

However, unlike Friday's match, TWU's comeback came to an abrupt halt in the fourth set, with Brandon running away with a 10-point win to capture its first ever Canada West gold medal.

Outside hitter Nick Del Bianco led the Spartan offence with 13 kills in the match while Steven Marshall contributed 12 and Brad Kufske also broke the double-digit barrier with 10.

Setter Jarrod Offereins had a team-high 34 assists and 14 digs.

For Brandon, Auckland, New Zealand native Sam Tuivai netted a game-high 22 kills and four aces in the victory, putting his respective weekend totals at an impressive 38 and six while fellow New Zealander Roy Ching, hailing from Nelson, added 15 kills for a two-game total of 31 at the Canada West Final Four.

"It was a weird game," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson, following the loss. "I'm not sure why, but there wasn't a lot of excitement in the game, especially for the first couple of sets.

"Brandon played great, but I think I made a major coaching error tonight. I tried to prepare the team in a different way and we were trying a couple of things that really didn't work out well. I thought our tactics were off and our approach was off and that really put us behind the eight-ball.

Josephson said in the fourth set, the Spartans had committed so much energy to adjusting things and keeping our heads in it that they just didn't have it.

"I don't think I let their abilities show themselves today with what I asked them to do," Josephson said. "Hopefully next week, we can put together a better plan to showcase our team."

Brandon and Trinity Western will both head to the CIS championships at Universit‚ Laval this weekend (March 1-3) alongside the Alberta Golden Bears, who won the Canada West bronze medal.