Michelle Sweeting's career-high total of 21 kills wasn't enough as the University of Regina's women's volleyball team was defeated in five sets on Friday night by No. 5-ranked Trinity Western in Canada West action at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
The Cougars went into the fourth set with a chance at victory after they registered 25-21 and 25-20 in the second and third sets to respond to TWU's match-opening 25-16 win in the first, but they weren't able to close out the Spartans. Trinity Western jumped out to a big early lead in the fourth and survived a late Cougar charge to force a deciding set in the 25-21 win, then led from wire to wire in the fifth set and clinched its 11th win of the Canada West schedule with a 15-10 victory.
 
Sophie Carpentier led Trinity Western (11-4) with 16 kills and added a match-high five service aces, while Alicia Perrin had 11 kills and was in on 11 of her team's 24 blocks on the night.
 
Sweeting's total of 21 kills breaks her old career high of 20 set earlier this year against Mount Royal. She also had a team-high six blocks for the Cougars, while Tori Glynn added 12 kills and 10 digs and Leah Shevkenek had 42 assists and 12 digs as both players registered double-doubles. Libero Lindsay Braul also broke into double figures in digs, ending up with 10 for the match.
 
Besides the efforts from Carpentier and Perrin, Trinity Western also had a nine-kill, seven-dig, seven-block performance from Royal Richardson and 40 assists, 11 digs, and seven blocks from setter Vanessa Cornwall. Katelyn Devaney added nine blocks for the Spartans.
 
The Cougars (4-11) and Trinity Western will meet again on Saturday night (5:00) to close out the two-match weekend set.