The University of Regina's women's volleyball team put the finishing touches on a weekend sweep over Mount Royal on Sunday afternoon, winning a Canada West match in four sets at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Cougars looked to be well on their way to a first-set victory with a late 23-17 lead, but Mount Royal reeled off seven consecutive points to take the lead and a block by Toni Vandenbrink and Nicky Zalasky on the visitors' second set point gave them the early lead in the match.
Faced with a similar 22-17 deficit in the second, Mount Royal again attempted a comeback with four consecutive points, but this time the Cougars were able to put an end to it with three consecutive points to claim a 25-21 win. That set the tone for a dominant third set which saw the Cougars hold Mount Royal to a negative hitting percentage in a big 25-12 win.
Needing to win the fourth to push the match to five, Mount Royal looked like it might do just that as the visitors led for the majority of the set. But the Cougars took a timeout trailing 20-18 and responded with seven consecutive points including a
Chelsea Ziolkowski smash from the right side that clinched the match with a 25-20 victory.
Ziolkowski was impressive in the win for the Cougars (3-5) with a team-high 20 digs and collecting 12 kills while hitting a match-high .579, as she only had one error on 19 attacks.
Tori Glynn had her second double-double in as many nights with 13 kills and 17 digs, while
Michelle Sweeting had 12 kills, 10 blocks, and eight digs to fall just short of an exceptionally rare triple-double.
Leah Shevkenek added 36 assists, while libero
Lindsay Braul had 13 digs.
Fallon Middlemiss led Mount Royal (2-8) with 16 kills and collected 11 digs to notch her second double-double of the weekend and her fifth of the Canada West schedule, while libero Alex Runge led all players with 21 digs and was also credited with a kill when her over pass on a
Tori Glynn serve fell onto the U of R's side of the net.
The Cougars will now prepare for a pair of road matches at Calgary (6-4), while Mount Royal will host Trinity Western (4-4).
