Box Score

The University of Regina's women's volleyball team gave No. 1-ranked UBC all it could handle on Friday night, but the undefeated Thunderbirds pulled out a five-set victory in Canada West action at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars led 8-7 at the side switch in the fifth after Molly Wade-Cummings and Chelsea Ziolkowski combined for a block, but it was all UBC from there. With Mariah Bruinsma serving, UBC reeled off eight straight points to clinch the match with a 15-8 win.

Lisa Barclay had a massive match for the Thunderbirds, ending up with a match-high 24 kills – six of which came in the deciding fifth set alone. Barclay added 11 digs for a double-double, while UBC setter Kirsty Setterlund had 49 assists and eight digs and libero Briana Liau Kent had 13 digs. Rosie Schlagintweit collected 11 kills and nine digs with Juliana Kaufmanis chipping in with 10 kills to help the Thunderbirds improve to 11-0 on the season.

Leah Shevkenek had 42 assists and led all players with 18 digs for the Cougars, while Desiree Ates had 16 kills and 12 digs and libero Megan Semeniuk had 16 digs. Michelle Sweeting added 13 kills, five digs, and five blocks for the Cougars, who drop to 3-8 on the season.

The two teams traded the opening two sets, as the Cougars opened with a 25-22 win in the first before UBC came back with a 25-21 victory in the second. The U of R then hit .312 as a team in a third set which they won by a convincing 25-16 margin, but couldn't put UBC away in the fourth. The Cougars forced a late UBC timeout after a Sweeting kill put them up 20-19, but the Thunderbirds scored six of the set's final seven points to force a deciding set with a 25-21 win.

In the fifth, the Cougars held three two-point leads in the early going before UBC's strong finish gave the Thunderbirds their 11th consecutive win.

These two teams will meet again at the CKHS on Saturday night (5:00, canadawest.tv).