LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 2 UBC Okanagan Heat rallied from a set down to earn a five-set victory (25-23, 19-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-7) over No. 1 Trinity Western Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

The win sees the Heat earn a weekend split with the Spartans as the top two teams in the country played back-to-back five-setters, with TWU winning Friday and the Heat taking Saturday's match.

Both teams are now tied atop the Canada West standings with 18-2 records. The two sides also possess identical 58-15 records in terms of sets won and lost, which is the first tiebreaker at the end of the season.

After the Spartans won the third set to take a 2-1 lead, the Heat put setter Chandler Proch into the match, replacing Emily Oxland, and the fifth-year's presence turned the tides. Proch helped UBCO force a fifth set with a tidy seven-point fourth-set win, before guiding the Heat to an eight-point win in the fifth set. With Proch in, the Heat outscored TWU 40-25 over the final two sets.

UBCO was led offensively by Kaitlynn Given, who had 15 kills while Megan Festival and Brianna Beamish had 12 kills each. Kailin Jones finished with a match-high 28 digs while Proch ended the night with 16 assists. Oxland, who started the first three sets, had 21 assists.

Elly Wendel (Caronport, Sask.) had a team-high 13 kills for TWU while Katelyn Devaney (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) had 12 kills and six blocks from the middle. Setter Nikki Cornwall (Coquitlam, B.C.) had 41 assists while libero Mariel Garcia (Winnipeg) had a season-high 24 digs.

As a team, the Heat hit .124 while holding TWU to .031 for the match. The Heat also had a 14-10 edge in blocks. Both teams finished with 89 digs.

"I thought there were moments when we put it together and were able to find a little bit of flow, but that didn't happen very often," said Spartans coach Ryan Hofer. "I don't want to take anything away from UBCO. I thought they fought hard tonight and maybe they wanted it a bit more than we did. But we had trouble getting the ball up to the net, which forced our setter to run around a lot tonight. Simply put, we can't hit three per cent and expect to win a game.

"Our standards are much higher than this and our passing standards are higher than this. Everything in regards to that has to be better."

The first set was a tale of runs. After the teams swapped points to a 5-5 tie, the Spartans went on a 10-0 run to open a 15-5 edge. However, the Heat responded immediately with a 13-1 run to take an 18-16 lead. Just as it looked like UBCO had momentum, the Spartans swung back, putting together a 7-0 run. The Heat rallied with four straight points, but couldn't complete the comeback and eventually a kill from Sophie Carpentier (Ottawa) earned the win at 25-23.

In something of an error-filled opening set, TWU hit -.093 while UBCO hit -.098. Both teams collected six blocks each.

With the Heat up 7-5 early in the second set, a Beamish kill launched an 8-1 run that put momentum squarely on the visitor's side. The Spartans closed the gap to four points late, at 23-19, but a Beamish kill and a TWU attack error gave the Heat the set. Both Beamish and Wuttunee had four kills to lead UBCO in the set while Wendel countered with three kills for TWU.

In the third set, the Heat took an 11-8 lead after an Oxland ace before a Festival kill put UBCO up 13-9. The Spartans quickly got right back into the set, evening it at 14-14 after a Wendel kill. Then, with TWU trailing 19-18, the Spartans went on a 5-0 run to seize momentum. After a UBCO point, a Carpentier kill set up set point and a TWU block won the set 25-20.

After hitting negatively in the first two sets, the Spartans hit .300 as a team in the third set.

With Proch taking over the setting duties for UBCO, the Heat found its rhythm in the fourth set, tallying four straight points to take a 16-12 lead into the technical timeout. The Spartans got within one point, at 17-16, but the Heat, who hit .278 in the set, launched a 7-1 run to run away with the set. A kill from Given sent the match to a fifth set, with the Heat winning 25-18.

TWU raced out to a 4-1 lead early in the fifth set, only to see the Heat score four straight points to take a 5-4 advantage. The Spartans scored the next two points, but then UBCO took over. The Heat scored 11 of the next 12 points, capped by with its 14th block of the night as UBCO cruised to a 15-7 win.

The Spartans return to the court Feb. 12-13 when they travel to play Thompson Rivers. The Heat are also back in action next weekend as they are in Edmonton to take on MacEwan.

Game Notes: The last five matches between UBCO and TWU, including last year's Canada West semifinal, have gone to five sets…The Spartans have beat UBCO in the last two Canada West Final Four tournaments, with TWU knocking off the Heat in the semifinals last year and the bronze medal match in 2014.

-TW-