Box Score LANGLEY, B.C. — The Winnipeg Wesmen will need to pull off back-to-back wins on the road in their pursuit of a conference championship.

The Wesmen men's volleyball team let a 17-9 second-set lead slip away and ultimately dropped a 3-1 (22-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-17) decision to the Trinity Western Spartans Thursday in Match 1 of their best-of-three Canada West semifinal series at the Langley Events Centre.

The Wesmen were seemingly in control when the Spartans won 14 of 20 points to pull to 23-23 in the second after already having fallen behind 1-0 in the match. The Wesmen also had a set point at 24-23 before TWU won three straight points to win the set and even the match.

In Sets 3 and 4, the Spartans largely controlled the play: At 7-6 in the third, they pulled off five straight points and the Wesmen couldn't get closer than two points the rest of the way, and in Set 4, they broke off early with three straight points at 4-4 to take a 7-4 edge. Trinity would go on to lead by as many as eight in the fourth in taking an early advantage in the series.

The winner of the best-of-three will go on to play for a conference title while the loser will still have a shot at nationals in a one-match bronze-medal showdown next weekend against the loser of Alberta and UBC. 

Isaiah Olfert led the Wesmen with 12 kills and hit .375, and Liam Kristjanson had eight kills while hitting .385 and adding five total blocks. 

The Wesmen hit .184 for the match while the Spartans, who hit -.111 in the first, finished .222 for the night. Winnipeg hit .368 and .350 in the first two sets, respectively. 

The Wesmen had nine total blocks in the first two sets but only mustered three the rest of the way. 

Henry Rempel had 11 kills to lead the Spartans, who beat Brandon in two matches last weekend to reach the semifinal. Kaden Schmidt added 10.

Match 2 goes Friday at 10 p.m. CT with a live stream available on canadawest.tv