The University of Regina's women's volleyball team scored a convincing first-set victory over the No. 4-ranked UBC Thunderbirds on Friday night, but lost the next three in the first match of a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal in Vancouver.

That first set saw the Cougars give up the first three points, but they quickly jumped ahead with a 7-1 run and took complete control of the set with five straight points around the media timeout that put the U of R up 18-10. Regina finished it off with a Jessica Lerminiaux service ace to give the Cougars a 25-16 win.

But the turning point of the match might have come late in a second set which saw the teams combine for 12 tie scores and four lead changes. With the score knotted at 22-22, UBC came up with kills from three different players in the following four points to give the Thunderbirds a 25-23 victory and square the match at a set apiece.

UBC rode that momentum into the next two sets, winning 25-18 in the third and then hitting .371 as a team while clinching the match with a 25-14 win in the fourth.

Four players broke into double figures in kills for UBC, led by Kiera Van Ryk's match-leading total of 16. Anna Price added 11 kills, while Olivia Furlan and Ciara Hanly both had 10.

Ashlee Sandiford led Regina with eight kills, while Kathleen Ens had seven kills to go along with seven blocks and six digs. Satomi Togawa finished with 24 assists and a team-leading 16 digs.

The two teams will meet again for Match 2 of the quarterfinal on Saturday night (6:00 PST) at the War Memorial Gym in Vancouver.