KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – Trinity Western's Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) tied the Spartans all-time record for kills in a match, with 25, but it wasn't enough as the No. 1 ranked team in the country was knocked off by Thompson Rivers, falling 3-1 (25-27, 28-26, 25-23, 27-25) Friday at the TRU Gym.

Carpentier's 25 kills equaled TWU's single match record, which is held by Kara Jansen Van Doorn, but the Spartans were still edged by a WolfPack side that remains tied for fifth in the Canada West standings.

The setback also marked just the second time in program history that the Spartans (18-3) have lost to the WolfPack (12-11). Prior to Friday, TWU had earned 21 wins in 22 matches against TRU.

Coming off a five-set loss against UBC Okanagan, the Spartans have now lost two in a row for the first time all year.

"We weren't sharp when we needed to be tonight," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I think tonight was good volleyball and it was a good battle and I think we needed to be a little bit sharper at specific times in the game. We're getting better and we're looking to improve, so there are some things that we'll address and we're going figure out and go from there."

After Carpentier, it was Katie Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) with eight kills each. Kristin Anton (Prince George, B.C.) had nine blocks while setter Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) had 50 assists and Mariel Garcia (Winnipeg) had 15 digs.

Iuliia Pakhomenko led TRU with 14 kills while Krista Hogewoning added 12 kills and 12 digs. Morgan Kolasa had seven blocks.

After TWU won the first set, the WolfPack responded by winning the next three in a row. All four sets were decided by two points.

"It is always exciting volleyball when we play in this old gym," Hofer said. "This reminds us of our old gym. We had a fantastic game tonight. I thought the difference was we didn't manage the ball as well as we should. We gave them too many opportunities to let them bang away.  When you do that with some of the players you have over there we make it hard on ourselves to win."

The two teams will close out the weekend series Saturday at 5 pm at the TRU Gym.

Game Notes: TRU is also the first team to beat TWU in less than five sets…The only other time TRU beat the Spartans was Dec. 2, 2011 when the WolfPack won in five sets…Jansen Van Doorn hit the 25-kill mark twice in her career – on Feb. 5, 2011 against Brandon and Oct. 31, 2009 against UBC.

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