VANCOUVER – Despite a valiant effort and staving off several match points, the No. 5 Trinity Western women's volleyball team lost a five-set thriller (25-19, 19-25,25-17, 34-36, 15-13) to No. 9 UBC Friday at War Memorial Gym.  

The loss drops TWU to 14-5 and snaps the Spartans 11-match winning streak. TWU's last loss was a five-setter against Manitoba on Oct. 31. With the win, UBC improves to 11-8. 

UBC's Lisa Barclay led the offence on both sides of the court with 20 kills, eight digs, and three blocks. Teammate Danielle Brisebois finished the evening with 18 kills, 10 digs, and three blocks. UBC setter Alessandra Gentille had 63 assists. 

On the other side of the net, TWU was led by senior middle blocker Alicia Perrin (Creston, B.C.), who finished with 17 kills and six blocks. Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) had 10 kills while Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) had a team-high seven blocks to go with three aces. Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) had 33 assists for TWU. 

"UBC was the better team tonight," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I thought they had a lot of control of the match early on but we were able to really battle in the fourth and fifth sets. I thought we really were finding it difficult to get into our flow and our rhythm and we need to be able to pass the ball and control the ball better in all aspects of the game. We showed good fight and never quit, but we need to find a way to take better control of the game." 

In the fifth set, UBC opened a 10-6 lead but TWU chipped away at its deficit. Perrin and Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) provided two kills each down the stretch to go along with a couple of service errors from the Thunderbirds to close the gap to a single point at 14-13. The comeback ultimately fell short as Brisebois ended the proceedings with a kill off the block on the very next point to give her team the win. 

The Spartans were hoping the fifth set would follow the pattern of the fourth, which saw them battle back from a late deficit to win. 

In that fourth set, UBC jumped out to an 11-5 lead thanks to seven straight points on Barclay's serve. Then, it was Brisebois recording a kill to put the Thunderbirds up 22-17. But the Spartans claimed the next four points before tying the match at 24-24. The two teams battled back and forth as UBC was unable to convert on four match points before TWU finally finished off the set 36-34 on its fifth set point opportunity. 

Royal Richardson (Rocky Mountain House, Alta.) extended the match with a kill to tie the set at 26-26. Teammate Wendel then served an ace to put TWU up 27-26 but Barclay recorded a kill for UBC on the next point. 

A Brisebois kill put the 'Birds ahead 29-28 but Perrin responded for the visitors with one of her own on the next play. With UBC down 31-30, Abbey Keeping came through and tied things up with a kill. 

Richardson put TWU 34-33 but Barclay replied to tie the set for the 15th time. After an attack error from the 'Birds, Perrin and Cornwall came up with a combination block on the ensuing point to finally end the set at 36-34. 

After splitting the first two games of the match 1-1, the 'Birds responded in the third set by jumping out to an 8-3 advantage. They held the Spartans at bay for most of the set, and then claimed four of the last five points to win and take a 2-1 lead. 

The rematch will take place on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. at UBC's War Memorial Gym. 

Game Notes: TWU hit .096 as a team while UBC hit .228…the T-Birds had 19 serving errors while TWU had eight…UBC out-blocked TWU 19-14.5.

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