VANCOUVER – The No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds suffered their first loss of the 2015-16 Canada West women's volleyball season on Saturday, dropping a four-set match against the Mt. Royal Cougars in Calgary.
 
The scores were 25-16, 25-23 14-25, 26-24 in favour of the hosts.
 
Juliana Kaufmanis (Richmond, B.C.) had 19 points – including 17 kills – for UBC, Danielle Brisebois (Bolton, Ont.) had 14 kills and Samantha Patko (Vancouver) had 17 digs, while Alex Donaghy led all Cougars with 16.5 points.
 
Leading 7-6 in the opening set, then won seven of the next eight points to go ahead 14-7. A couple of kills from Alissa Coulter (Calgary) and a service ace from Laura Worsley (Vancouver) closed the gap slightly and forced MRU to call a timeout, which proved effective as the Cougars claimed the next three points to win the first set.
 
The home side jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second before the Thunderbirds cut their deficit to 16-15 on a triple block by Danielle Brisebois (Bolton, Ont.), Siobhan Finan (Vancouver) and Nicola Laniuk (Surrey, B.C.).
 
UBC used a 4-0 run – capped off by an Alessandra Gentile (Port Moody, B.C.) ace – to tie set at 19 but the Cougars responded with a Julia Kryzan kill to reclaim the lead. The Cougars rattled off two more points to go up 22-20. Two ensuing errors by UBC gave Mt. Royal four set points. After squandering three chances, the Cougars finally put the set away with a kill by Alex Donaghy.
 
Needing to win the third set to stay alive, UBC jumped out to an 8-2 lead. Every time MRU closed in on the Thunderbirds, UBC had a response.
 
The Cougars got to within two points at 13-11, but the Thunderbirds won the next five, two of which came on Ciara Hanly (Calgary) aces, to lead 18-11.
 
UBC finished off the set in emphatic fashion, winning the last six points with the final five coming with Worsley serving. The set-clinching play was a huge block by Coulter on Kylie Willis.
 
Mt. Royal started the fourth with a 5-1 only to see the Thunderbirds go ahead 13-10 with a 7-1 surge. Brisebois delivered two kills for UBC in the run while Kaufmanis and Hanly recorded service aces.
 
The Cougars quickly reversed UBC's momentum by going on an 8-0 run themselves, thanks mostly to four aces from Chantel Park.
 
The Thunderbirds, though, kept fighting. Kaufmanis knocked down five kills as part of a 7-1 run that made it 24-23 for UBC. But the Cougars were able to turn things around and win the next three points to earn the hard-fought victory.
 
The Cougars even their record at 5-5 with the victory. UBC falls to 9-1 and will head back to Vancouver where they will get set to host the MacEwan Griffins for two games beginning on Friday night.
 
Mt. Royal will travel to Langley next weekend to face the 10-0 Trinity Western Spartans for their final two games before the holiday break.