After three back-and-forth sets, two of which were won by the Manitoba Bisons, the Trinity Western Spartans dug deep and won the final two sets convincingly, capturing the Canada West men鈥檚 volleyball gold medal.

鈥淩esilience,鈥� said Spartans setter Ben Ball about what was key for his team.

鈥淭he first three sets were extremely tight.

鈥淲e just stuck with it and made adjustments.

鈥淲e just wanted to stay confident and focused on what we were doing and things started to turn around in the second half.鈥�

The first three sets were all decided by two points apiece, but facing defeat if they dropped the fourth set, the Spartans won convincingly, 25-14. The fifth and deciding set went 15-9 for Trinity Western.

Regardless of this weekend鈥檚 outcome at the Canada West final four championships, which were hosted at the , all four teams were guaranteed to move on to this weekend鈥檚 CIS national championships at Queen鈥檚 University in Kingston.

The Spartans, the defending national champs, are ranked first at the eight-team event.

Ball said it was important for the team to win the because they wanted the highest seed possible.

It was also a chance for Ball and the team鈥檚 two other graduating seniors 鈥� Rudy Verhoeff and Marc Howatson 鈥� to win their final game ever at the LEC.

The Spartans also became the first-ever men鈥檚 volleyball program to .

Ball was named the player of the year, Jarrod Offeriens won the libero of the year, Verhoeff was the top student-athlete, and Ben Josephson won coach of the year.

Ball and Verhoeff were also named Canada West first-team all-stars while Steven Marshall was a second team all-star.

鈥淚t feels good obviously, but it won鈥檛 feel nearly as good if we don鈥檛 win nationals,鈥� Ball said about his individual award.

鈥淚t will be a good addition if we win nationals.

鈥淭hat is the main goal of this entire year.鈥�

Josephson also downplayed his award.

鈥淚t means we have a great volleyball team,鈥� he said.

鈥淎ll awards are team awards in this sport.鈥�

Josephson said he was impressed with how his team responded with their backs to the wall.

Since losing to Manitoba on Jan. 27, the Spartans won their next six matches 鈥� including the Canada West semifinals 鈥� dropping only a single set along the way.

鈥淲e needed to feel like what it feels like to lose and the guys responded really well in the fourth and fifth set,鈥� he said.

Going into this weekend鈥檚 national championships, Josephson said the team has work to do.

鈥淲e are going to have to clean some of that stuff up because I don鈥檛 think the effort is good enough to win nationals,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t was barely good enough to win the conference.鈥�

One thing working in his team鈥檚 favour is the fact they have won the big prize before.

鈥淲e know what it takes, now it is are we willing to do it and are they willing to pay that price?鈥�