TWU improved to 14-0 on the season with a hard-fought, three-set win over visiting Winnipeg in a match that could have gone either way.

The top-ranked university men's volleyball team in Canada is living up to its ranking.

The defending CIS champion Trinity Western University Spartans kept their perfect season intact as they completed a weekend sweep of the scrappy Winnipeg Wesmen with a three-set win Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

Set scores were 25-19, 27-25, and 25-23.

The win improves the Spartans' record to 14-0 on the season while the loss drops Winnipeg to 6-10.

Despite a workmanlike effort from the visiting Wesmen, one in which they out-blocked the Spartans 8-7, TWU ended things early with young Spartans Branden Schmidt and Derek Thiessen getting the lion's share of their team's kills en route to the victory.

Schmidt finished the game with 10 kills, while not committing a single attacking error. He added five blocks and five digs while Thiessen had seven kills and chipped in with three blocks.

The Spartans' Lucas Van Berkel had seven kills, six digs and two blocks, while setter Ben Ball had 41 assists and 11 digs.

For Winnipeg, it was Ty Loewen leading the way with 11 kills and four digs, while Devin Schmidt had seven kills and three blocks and Brendan Black had six kills, five blocks and four digs.

"They were a great opponent again and they really frustrated us," said Spartan coach Ben Josephson. "They made us scrap and dig. They played great. I thought our guys grinded for the first two sets enough to get through and our middle attacking was great and that carried the day for us."

Josephson said that maybe the secret is out there now, "but we have some great athletes on our bench."

"Branden is actually a junior national team left side player and he's a pretty amazing middle player and he showed that tonight, especially offensively," Josephson said. "And Derek has been getting better every weekend. It's fun to watch him play. He plays with such energy and passion and positivity that it's good to see him perform as good as his emotion was."

With the Spartans up one set to zero, the Wesmen led the second set 24-22.

That's when Marc Howatson took charge.

With a kill, he made it 24-23. Then Howatson made a block to tie it 24-24. Then, after the teams traded points, Howatson had another kill to make it 26-25 for Trinity Western before he went to the serving line and ripped a set-winning ace.

The set saw 16 tie scores and six lead changes.

In the third set, with Winnipeg replacing Stephane Waldie at libero with Riley Delavau, the Wesmen started the third set on a tear as they built an early 13-7 advantage.

Trailing by six, the Spartans got a monster kill from Brad Kufske and from there, the Spartans started rolling. Trinity Western took four straight points to make it a two-point game at 13-11.

Trinity Western kept battling back and eventually tied it up 15-15. Then, after a Spartans serving error gave the Wesmen a one-point lead at the technical timeout, Trinity Western seemingly took over. The Spartans got the next three points to take an 18-16 lead.

But Winnipeg came right back, taking six of the next nine points that gave the Wesmen a 22-21 lead. After that though, the Spartans went on a 4-1 run capped by a, most fittingly, Schmidt and Thiessen block to win the set and the match.

Both teams will be back in action next weekend as the Spartans will travel to play Manitoba while the Wesmen will host UBC, both Jan. 27-28.

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The Spartans squeaked past a pesky Winnipeg side 3-2 Friday night at the LEC.

Set scores were 20-25, 25-21, 25-11, 25-27, and 15-10.

Playing without starters Howatson and Dan Jansen Van Doorn, the Spartans were led by Steven Marshall, Kufske and Schmidt on offence as the home side got an all-important win in what was a tight match filled with extended rallies.

Marshall finished the game with 20 kills, seven digs and four aces, while Kufske had 17 kills and nine digs, and Schmidt had eight kills and three blocks. Spartans libero Jarrod Offereins added a game-high 15 digs.

\The win improves the Spartans record to 13-0 in conference play while the loss drops Winnipeg to 6-9.