Playing against the best professional players in the world, the Trinity Western Spartans won one of their three matches.

The men's volleyball team was representing the North and Central American and Caribbean (NORCECA) zone at the FIVB volleyball men's club world championship in Doha, Qatar.

The Spartans lost their final match 3-0 (25-17,25-20,25-18) against Poland's KS Jastrzebski Wegiel on Oct. 11.

"Today was another tough match," said Spartans coach Ben Josephson.

鈥淎nother great team across the net. You could see the difference in the chips, but we did good on our blocks. We are very excited that our younger players had the opportunity to play against such teams. The biggest lesson for them was that every skill takes such care. Here every serve, every pass has a purpose. It's good that we have some video material we can show our boys and can work with.鈥�

KS Jastrzebski Wiegel Coach Lorenzo Bernardi was impressed with the Spartans fight.

鈥淎s our last match, we're a little disappointed,鈥� said Spartans captain Rudy Verhoeff. 鈥淲e were too sloppy in the easy plays. The average age of our team is five years younger than the rest of the teams participating in this competition. We're very happy to have had this opportunity and it gave us a clear view on where we need to be and what we need to work on. Overall we have learned a lot and this competition has been a great experience.鈥�

In the Spartans first two matches, they lost 3-0 (25-11,25-11,25-16) to Russia's Zenit Kazan and defeated Iran's Paykan Tehran 3-2 (25-23,18-25,17-25,25-18,15-6).

Trinity Western, the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport national champions, return home as they prepare for the start of the Canada West season on Oct. 28.

The team's home opener at the 91原创 Events Centre is Nov. 18.