CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos women's volleyball team fell 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-22) to the No. 8 Manitoba Bisons in their first game back from the break at Jack Simpson Gymnasium on Fri., Jan. 10. 

As the Dinos fall to 4-9, the Bisons improve to 7-6. Ali Woolley led the way for Calgary with 16 kills on the night, followed by another ten from rookie Janna Ogle. Rookies Laura McManes and Brianna Solberg picked up 20 and 12 digs, respectively. Setter Jordhynn Guy recorded 33 assists. 

For the Bisons, Rachel Cockrell led all hitters with a game-high 21 kills. Teammate Taylor Pischke recorded another 20 and fourth-year Mariel Garcia added ten more. Top setter in the conference, Brittany Habing, recorded a game-high 52 assists. 

In the first set, the Dinos came out hot from the get go, taking a 4-point lead at 11-7 with some tricky plays from setter Guy. Despite the lead, Manitoba found a way to tie it at 11 and take their first lead of the set at 12-11. Battling back and forth, the lead changed several times up until the technical timeout in which the Bisons were up with a one-point advantage. 

The Dinos took a rare two-point lead at 21-19 and held onto it thanks to some errors from the other side of the court. Calgary hung on to win it 25-23 as a Bison would hit the antenna on an attack. 

Once again, it would be a close set as both teams exchanged leads early on. At 9-7, the Bisons held onto the lead with Pischke at the line serving and would eventually lead by one at 16-15. 

The Dinos later tied the game up at 17 after the technical timeout, but from there, it would seem the home team would run out of steam. Manitoba found ways to capitalize as they sailed to a match-tying, second set win at 25-20. 

Calgary had a rough start to a very important third set, going down 4-0. Despite that, the Dinos fought back to tie the set at five with Woolley generating some offence up front. Fighting back, Manitoba's Pischke continued to shine, having recording 15 kills by the technical timeout where the Bisons led 16-11. 

Manitoba managed to hang on to their lead once again with some great defence, not allowing the Dinos to do much in the way of offence in the third set. The Bisons earned the 25-19 third set win to go up 2-1. 

In the fourth, Calgary maintained a lead of two points throughout the beginning and were up 16-14 heading into the technical. It didn't last long after Bisons head coach Ken Bentley talked to his team as some serves from setter Habing allowed Manitoba to tie it up at 16. 

From there, the Bisons began to pick up their game, going ahead 19-17, forcing the Dinos to call a timeout. Timeouts proved fruitful for both teams as Calgary clawed their way back into the game and took the lead back at 20-19 with a roll shot from Woolley. 

A number of lead changes occurred once again and Ogle's tenth kill of the match put Calgary up 22-21. Unfortunately, a few key errors from the Dinos including one from McManes to make the score 24-22, helped the Bisons close out the set 25-22, and close out the match 3-1.