The University of Regina's women's volleyball team pulled out a five-set road win over Mount Royal on Saturday afternoon, marking the second consecutive weekend that the Cougars have taken out a ranked opponent.
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The Cougars were lights-out in the first set, rolling to a 25-13 win as the match opened up in stark contrast to Friday's three-set win by Mount Royal. But MRU came back with equally convincing wins in the next two sets, winning 25-14 in the second and 25-12 in the third.
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That led to the fourth set, which saw the Cougars jump out to a 16-13 lead thanks to four straight points leading up to the technical timeout. Mount Royal battled back by going on a 9-4 run that gave them a match point at 24-23, but the visiting Cougars had a response.
Diana Lumbala and
Jessica Lerminiaux had back-to-back kills to give Regina its own set point, and
Kathleen Ens capitalized with an ace to push the match to a deciding set.
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The fifth set was a near-deadlock until the very end, when Regina setter
Satomi Togawa went on a serving run. The Cougars scored the last four points of the match, clinching the win with a
Jessica Lerminiaux kill on a big hit from the left side.
Lerminiaux finished as the U of R's leader with 10 kills, while
Ashlee Sandiford collected nine kills, four aces, and five digs.
Taylor Ungar added 15 digs to her Canada West-leading total for the Cougars.
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Alex Donaghy led Mount Royal with 21 kills.
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The Cougars will be back at home next weekend with matches on Friday and Saturday against Brandon.
NOTES: The Cougars have now defeated a team ranked in the U SPORTS Top Ten two consecutive weekends, as they also took out then-No. 1 Alberta last Friday at the CKHS ... the Cougars themselves got some attention in this week's poll, garnering nine votes after the big win over the Pandas.
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