The #4 Manitoba Bisons women's volleyball team were defeated by the #5 Trinity Western Spartans by a 3-0 score (28-26, 25-16, 28-26) in a battle of two of the best teams so far in the country on Friday, November 29 at Investors Group Athletic Centre ( U of Manitoba campus).

In the exciting close three set match, the visitors had two players in double digits in kills with Sophie Carpentier leading the way with a team-high 21 and ten digs while Alicia Perrin added ten kills (.471 hitting percentage) and eight digs while Vanessa Cornwall had 20 assists and Chelsea Tancon with 18 assists. Royal Richardson also registered ten digs for the victors. For the home side, Rachel Cockrell had a game-high 23 kills and five digs, Taylor Pischke with nine kills and nine digs and Caleigh Dobie added 15 digs. Setter Brittany Habing notched 39 assists, six total blocks and six digs. TWU had 15.5 team blocks to Manitoba only 7.0 blocks. Trinity Western also had ten service aces.

With the win, Trinity Western moved to 7-4 while Manitoba dropped to 6-5 in the ultra-competitive Canada West conference regular season standings.

The third set was indicative of the whole match as the Bisons were fired up from a tough 2-0 hole they were in and had a late as large as 9-1 before Trinity Western started to chip away with hard serving and strong defence to bring them back to a 16-14 deficit at the technical timeout. After the break, TWU moved to within one but the Bisons pushed back and look to lock up the set as they served at 24-20. That is when the Spartans made another rally as they forced a side-out and then had three tough serves (two service aces) and the score was even at 24 and the visitors scored five straight points to take their first lead of the set. After a call at the first match point for TWU on a net violation, the visitors had another chance for the victory and made no mistake as Alicia Perrin slammed home a cross court for the winner and a 28-26 incredible comeback.

Spartans head coach Ryan Hofer commented after the match, "We just tried to make Manitoba make plays off our serves and see how they would handle it. It was huge momentum to win the third but tomorrow is a new day and Ken Bentley (head coach of the Bisons) will have the team prepared for the next match as they are a great team. We must be ready for another challenge tomorrow."

The first set was a similar back-and-forth affair as the third as both teams had set points before Trinity scored the final point on a long kill by Manitoba and took it 26-24.

The second set was a dominant set for the Spartans and the led throughout as they used precise serving to gain easy points and forge a huge lead that Manitoba could not come back from.

Both teams met again tomorrow (Sat., Nov. 30) at 5 p.m. CT on the same court.

Stats Leaders

Rachel Cockrell – Manitoba with 23 kills

Sophie Carpentier – Trinity Western with 21 kills

Caleigh Dobie – Manitoba with 15 digs

Three players with ten digs for Trinity Western

Brittany Habing – Manitoba with six total blocks

Casio Gano – Trinity Western with nine total blocks