VANCOUVER – After falling down two sets to none, the UBC Thunderbirds battled hard against the second-ranked team in the country, but eventually fell to the Trinity Western Spartans in four sets Friday night at War Memorial Gym.

UBC (8-9) came out for the third set on fire, staking out a 10-3 lead and holding on for the 25-19 win to force a fourth where the Spartans (17-2) answered back themselves to secure their conference leading 17^th win of the season (25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20).

It wasn't the cleanest game for either side with UBC committing 27 total attacking errors to Trinity Western's 25. But the Spartans managed to take advantage of their opponents' errors more regularly while hitting .143 on the night to the 'Birds' .131.



Hilary Howe paced the way for the Spartans with an impressive 18 kills on the night on .224 attacking along with three service aces.

"They're a good team, they're well coached, and I know coming into War Memorial we're going to have to scrap for it," said TWU head coach Ryan Hofer. "Both teams made a lot of unforced errors and I think both teams can hit better than that and so I expect an upgrade on both sides tomorrow."

Tessa Davis kickstarted a T-Birds roll early in the opening set with a service ace as part of a 5-0 run to take a 7-3 lead forcing the Spartans to burn their first timeout. The break had its desired effect as the visitors went on a 5-0 run of their own to take an 8-7 advantage.

After falling down by four at the technical timeout, the 'Birds battled back late in the opening set, led by Jayde Robertsen who put up back-to-back kills following by a nifty Brynn Pasin tip over the net to cut the deficit to 22-20. But the Spartans were able to fend off the T-Birds' charge as Savannah Purdy hammered her third kill of the set in timely fashion to clinch the frame.



After trading points to get to 10-10 in the second set, UBC went ahead with one of Gabrielle Attieh's team-leading 12 kills on the night while the 'Birds went on to take a 16-14 advantage at the break.

But yet again, the Spartans proved why they're such a dangerous squad, re-taking the lead 22-21, eventually holding on for the victory, putting the 'Birds on the ropes.

It was an impressive third set for UBC, rocketing out to the early lead which they held 16-7 at the timeout.

That T-Birds lead dwindled to just four at 20-16, but Attieh took charge at the net front with back-to-back kills, expanding UBC's cushion and securing the eventual set win.



Trinity Western mimicked UBC's third set run to start the fourth but the T-Birds refused to go away quietly, taking an 8-7 lead on a Spartans attack error. But the rally was short-lived as TWU went up by four at the technical timeout, never looking back.

"I can't fault our effort, I thought we worked really hard defensively," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. "I could fault our execution at certain points, but we continued to battle hard right to the end which is a good sign. I thought across the board we had a lot of positive things I think we can carry forward into tomorrow and the future. We should be disappointed but also focused on giving ourselves a little better chance at finishing sets."

The 'Birds will get that chance Saturday when the two rivals face each other for the final time this regular season as part of UBC's Pride Night at War Memorial. First serve is set for 5:00 p.m. PT.