Box Score Box Score

The University of Regina's women's volleyball team fell down early, but came roaring back with wins in three consecutive sets to take a 3-1 win over the Brandon Bobcats on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Brandon trailed by as many as seven points during the opening set, but the Bobcats erased the deficit with a late rally and came away with a 25-23 win. The Cougars responded with a convincing 25-15 win in the second set, then outlasted Brandon for a 31-29 victory in a long third set.

The fourth set was tied at 12, but the home side reeled off eight consecutive points with Kaitlyn Hughes serving to seize control. The Cougars cruised to a 25-20 victory, clinching their sixth conference victory of the season.

“I thought the team worked exceptionally hard for their win tonight,” head coach Melanie Sanford said. “We responded to the loss in the first set in a positive manner, and tonight's win was really about the performance of the team as opposed to one or two individuals.”

The Cougars ended up with an impressively balanced attack in the victory, as Michelle Sweeting led the team with a career-high 14 kills but four other U of R players had at least 11. Hughes and Roxanne Olynyk each had 12 kills, while Solveig Nilson and Meagan Onstad chipped in with 11.

Tiffany Herman recorded 55 assists on Friday, the most by a U of R player in a four-set match since Canada West began tracking the statistic prior to the 2002-03 season. Rebecca Rink had a match-high 22 digs, while Hughes (19), Onstad (18), and Herman (11) all had at least 10 digs to register double-doubles.

Jaryn Ruether led Brandon in both kills (15) and digs (17), while Teagan Hunter (16 digs, 10 kills) and Sara Grona (14 digs, 12 kills) also recorded double-doubles. Becky Young had 33 assists for the Bobcats, while libero Donata Huebert had 16 digs. Grona and Claire Willerton each had a match-high six blocks.

Regina improves to 6-7 with the win, while Brandon falls to 7-6. The Bobcats remain in a tie for fifth place in the Canada West standings with Calgary (7-6), which also lost on Friday night.

The two teams will meet again at the CKHS on Saturday night following the conclusion of the men's match.