KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – A night after dropping a four-setter for the first time this year, the No. 1 Trinity Western women's volleyball team got back in the win column with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-18, 17-25, 25-21) victory over Thompson Rivers Saturday at the TRU Gym.

After TRU forced a fourth set with a convincing third set victory, the Spartans responded with their best offensive set of the night, hitting .483 as a team, to walk away with a four-point win and the match.

The Spartans are now 19-3 on the season and are alone in second place in Canada West, trailing UBC Okanagan by one game. The loss drops the WolfPack to 12-12.

TWU will finish the regular season next weekend when it hosts UBC in a series that will finalize both teams' playoff positions.

Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) led the Spartans with 14 kills while Katie Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) had 10 kills and tied her career-high for blocks, with 11. Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) finished with 35 assists while libero Mariel Garcia (Winnipeg) had 21 digs.

Krista Hogewoning led TRU with 13 kills.

"I'm really pleased the team's performance tonight," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I thought they showed a lot of composure coming back after yesterday and just playing a really hard match. I thought we blocked well and capitalized on a few opportunities and then some of our attackers hit really well. Elly Wendel was solid for us along with Katie, Sophie (Carpentier, Ottawa) and Nikki. They were all really good and then we had a great supporting cast from those who came in.

"Micaylee Pucilowski (Kelowna, B.C.) served four aces in the second set and got us from being out of the match to right in it. Brie (O'Reilly, Langley) came in and passed for us and Rowyn (Neufeld, Richmond, B.C.), who was feeling under the weather, came out in the fourth set and nailed it."

With the score tied 23-23 in the first set, the Spartans tallied the last two points, thanks to a Wendel kill and a Carpentier ace.

In the second set Pucilowski entered with TWU down 11-6 and with four aces on six serves helped the Spartans rally for a 25-18 win.

The WolfPack took the third set to extend the match, but then TWU ended the night with its most efficient set of the night. Neufeld tallied her fifth kill of the set to finish the set and the match.

-TW-