The inaugural U-23 Pan American Men's Volleyball Cup is officially here.

The international tournament starts today and runs until Sunday (Sept. 25-30) at the Langley Events Centre.

Last week, the LEC announced that all games will be streamed live online via PlayFullScreen at www.langleyeventscentre.com.

The six-day tournament will see five teams - Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, and Canada, the latter of which will be represented by the Trinity Western men's volleyball team - compete in a complete round robin format plus a playoff day. It is will all be broadcast live online, with play-by-play and colour commentary, from the arena bowl at the Langley Events Centre.

Volleyball Canada and the LEC recently announced that Venezuela had withdrawn its entry.

Citing both visa and travel issues, the Venezuelans informed Volleyball Canada late Friday that they were unable to travel and subsequently attend the event.

The schedule has been adjusted with two matches per day with the teams competing in a complete round robin format plus a final playoff day.

The revised schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, Sept. 25 - 6 p.m. Dominican Republic vs. Argentina; 8 p.m. Canada vs. Mexico

Wednesday, Sept. 26 - 6 p.m. Argentina vs. Mexico; 8 p.m. Brazil vs. Dominican Republic

Thursday, Sept. 27 - 6 p.m. Brazil vs. Argentina; 8 p.m. Canada vs. Dominican Republic

Friday, Sept. 28 - 6 p.m. Mexico vs. Dominican Republic; 8 p.m. Canada vs. Brazil

Saturday, Sept. 29 - 6 p.m. Brazil vs. Mexico; 8 p.m. Canada vs. Argentina

Sunday, Sept. 30 - 3 p.m. bronze medal match; 5 p.m. gold medal match

The direct link to the live broadcast is: www.langleyeventscentre.com/u23volleyballcup.

The games will be available on a pay-per-view basis.

Prices are $3.49 per game or $14.99 for the entire tournament.

To purchase tickets for the U-23 Pan American Volleyball Cup, go to www.langleyeventscentre.com or go to the TWU Bookstore on the Trinity Western University campus.

Spartans outlast Alberta

TWU has kept itself busy in the leadup to the Pan Am Cup.

After falling to Alberta Thursday, the Spartans rallied Friday as they beat those same Golden Bears in five sets at the UBC Okanagan Gymnasium.

Playing with a similar roster to that which the Spartans will field at the Cup, Trinity Western rallied from set deficits twice to earn a comeback win over a feisty Golden Bears side.

After dropping a tight first set, the Spartans looked strong in the second set as they tied the match 1-1. In the third set, the Golden Bears again surged ahead with a four-point win, but similar to the second set, Trinity Western was decisively better in the fourth set.

The fifth set went back and forth until the Spartans finally pulled out the win, taking it 17-15.

With the win, the Spartans improved to 2-1 in pre-season action, having beaten UBC-O Wednesday before Thursday's loss to Alberta.

"We responded really well to yesterday's loss, emotionally and really started forging our identity for this year," Spartans' coach Ben Josephson said. "We have a lot of work to do in terms of cleaning up the volleyball side of things for us, but I thought we made great strides when it comes to learning how to compete and how to stay together in good and bad times. I'm proud of the effort as far as the emotional side of things, but we have a lot of work to do when it comes to being a really sharp volleyball team."