LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans battled the defending U SPORTS champion Mount Royal Cougars for the entire 60 minutes but found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 score Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-6-1, while the win improves the No. 2 ranked Cougars to 11-3-0.

Third-year goalie Kate Fawcett (Tottenham, Ont.) made 38 saves in the Spartans' loss, while Kaitlyn Ross made 19 saves in the Cougar win.

Third-year forward Kyra McDonald (Inuvik, NT) with her second of the season, and second-year Olivia Leier (Regina, Sask.) with her fourth of the season were the TWU goal scorers. Emma Bergesen with her fifth of the season, Aliya Jomha with her third of the season, and Allee Gerrard with her ninth of the season were the goal scorers for the Cougars.

Special teams were the feature on the night with both teams scoring two power play goals.

MRU scored twice in the opening 20 minutes, to go into the first intermission up 2-0. TWU responded in the second with two power-play goals to tie the game up 2-2 heading into the final period. Gerrard got the game-winner on the power-play with 2:25 remaining in the game.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Peter Hay
"I thought our team played hard against a very good MRU obviously a special teams game with two power-play goals each. Unfortunately, they came out victorious at the end out shooting us but I thought there were many chances for us to win that game and I'll play them at times. MRU is a very good team and I think that if we play the right way, we can give ourselves a chance to get a split out of the weekend. Tomorrow's another day to show what we can do."

NOTABLE

• TWU was 2/4 on the power play, while MRU was 2/2.
• The Cougars outshot the Spartans 41-21.
• The Spartans are coming off a bye week as they return to action this week against the Cougars.
• Last week the Cougars swept the MacEwan. They defeated the Griffins 4-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday in Edmonton.
• The Spartans are 1-11 lifetime against the Cougars.
• The last time the Cougars and the Spartans met was in the Canada West quarter-final at MRU in Calgary last season. TWU lost the best of three series 2-1 to the eventual U SPORTS champion Cougars.

UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Mount Royal Cougars will finish the weekend series tomorrow afternoon at the Langley Events Centre. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on CanadaWest.TV.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country, and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
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