The Mount Royal Cougars took a three-set win over the Regina Cougars on Friday night in a Canada West women's volleyball match at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

MRU took the first set by a 25-19 count, then won 25-15 and 25-19 in the second and the third sets to finish off the match.

The visitors hit .312 as a team, led by Cassidy Kitchen who had a match-leading 10 kills while hitting .409 in the win. Nyadholi Thokbuom had nine kills and hit .375, while Chantel Park added seven kills for the Calgary-based Cougars. Park also led all players with 11 digs, while Thokbuom had a match-leading five blocks to help No. 5-ranked Mount Royal improve to 18-3 on the season.

Mount Royal is in second place in the Canada West standings, two wins behind conference-leading Trinity Western (20-2) but still with a match in hand on the idle Spartans.

Regina (2-19) was led offensively by Brittany Rousseaux's nine kills. Rousseaux also had nine digs, while setter Elizabeth Tooth finished with 23 assists and 10 digs.

The first and the third sets followed similar scripts, as both frames were close until a push by Mount Royal around the technical timeout. The first set saw a 7-0 run with Quinn Pelland serving that turned a one-point Regina lead into a six-point lead for MRU, while Mount Royal closed out the third with a 9-3 run after it had been tied 16-16. The second set was all Mount Royal, as they hit .393 as a team and took 11 of 12 points during an early spurt which featured an extended serving run by Kitchen.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night (6:00) at the CKHS in what will be the final home match for graduating Regina players Diana Lumbala and Kirstin Greve.