Box Score WINNIPEG, MB - Losing three of their last four, the Bison women's volleyball team returned home for their match on Friday, November 7 against the #6 UBC Thunderbirds looking to both turn momentum around and make a statement.

Yes, Friday's match was the first meeting of the two teams since the Bisons beat UBC in the 2013-14 CIS women's volleyball title game, and the Investors Group Athletic Centre had a playoff feel all night. When the dust settled in an incredible five-set match, it was again Manitoba on top (25-12, 23-25, 22-25, 25-18, 19-17).

Co-captain Rachel Cockrell was again the standout for Manitoba, who move to 4-5 with the victory. She had 21 of her team's 47 kills, while Jordana Milne put together a solid night with eight kills of her own.

"We're playing great teams, this stretch is really tough for us," said Bison head coach Ken Bentley. "We played a great fourth set [tonight] and the fifth wasn't a shocker, it was gonna be close… When you're playing big strong teams and a good program like UBC it's going to be hard every time you play."

"I'm just happy we made two more plays to win. That's what it came down to - two plays."

UBC falls to 5-4 with the loss, and were led by Rosie Schlagintweit and Alissa Coulter, both with 13 kills. Abbey Keeping was a strong leader in keeping her team in it, and she notched 11 kills of her own.

With the building alive early, Manitoba took advantage of early UBC mistakes and jumped out of the gate - a nine-point streak gave them a 19-9 lead, as they walked to a 25-13 first set win.

The Thunderbirds, though, woke up for the second. Keeping worked hard in the middle, getting four kills and a service ace in the set. With UBC up 23-19, Manitoba took four of the next five points - but on an incredible, lengthy set point rally, Danielle Brisebois got a left side kill to seal a 25-23 win.

Volleyball rarely looks like an individual sport, but UBC's Kelsey Clarke made it so in the third set. On seven service aces and ten assists in the set, she put her team up 6-0 to start and, after Manitoba rallied, gave them three points to close it out 25-22.

In the fourth, it was the Bisons with a slim 16-15 lead at the technical timeout. But two set kills for Kalena Schultz and three for Jordana Milne gave them separation late, and a 25-18 win.

With a packed house at full throat, UBC took a long, dazzling rally down 13-11 in the fifth - blocking Cockrell four times before getting a kill off the block. It would appear they'd turned the corner, as they consistently got two blockers up on Cockrell and fought off four Manitoba set points to earn one of their own.

But the Bisons were relentless in feeding their other veterans. Milne and Brittany Habing both had pivotal plays down the stretch - on Manitoba's fifth match point, it was Milne getting dug out once, then slamming the victory into the floor on the second effort.

The Bison women's volleyball team will play the second of their back-to-back with UBC on Saturday, November 8th at 5 p.m. CST.