Calgary, AB – The Cougars won a thrilling match on Kenyon Court defeating the unbeaten UBC Thunderbirds 3-1(25-16, 25-23 14-25, 26-24). Juliana Kaufmanis had 19 points for UBC, while Alex Donaghy led all Cougars with 16.5 points.

The Cougars came flying out of the gate and ran up a 14-7 lead to start the match. They scored off kills, serves and errors, claiming points any way that they could. Late in the set, UBC hit the ball long giving the Cougars a 20-12 lead, forcing UBC to take their final timeout.

After the timeout, UBC had the momentum scoring four of the first six points before Mount Royal Head Coach Sandra Lamb called a timeout. The Thunderbirds very next serve went long giving Mount Royal the advantage. Two quick smashes gave Mount Royal their first set win of the weekend.

Mount Royal was on a mission in the second set, cruising to a 5-1. UBC slowly crawled back into it, cutting the deficit to 11-9. Sandra Lamb called her first timeout of the set when a smash brought UBC to within one.

UBC tied the 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. Unforced errors by UBC gave Mount Royal four set points. After squandering three chances, Alex Donaghy finally put the set away with an emphatic kill.

It was UBC who this time got out to the quick start in the third. They Thunderbirds led 7-2 before Sandra Lamb called her first timeout. Mount Royal battled back to close the gap to two points.

Carolina Alongi made a nice kill after a long rally that looked to shift the momentum back to Mount Royal, but UBC kept pressing and took a 16-11 lead into another Cougars' timeout. After the timeout it was all UBC. They opened up a huge 24-14 lead before a block sealed the third set.

Mount Royal started the fourth with a 5-2 run to regain some confidence after the third set loss. The Thunderbirds caught up to the Cougars and the teams traded blows back and forth throughout the middle stages of the set.

The Cougars pulled ahead 15-13 on a beautiful float serve by Chantel Park, who was inserted into the game for that very purpose. Park's service run reeled off five straight points for the Cougars to put them in the driver's seat.

Carolina Alongi buried another of her series of kills to put the Cougars up 22-17. The Cougars started to get sloppy and allowed a 6-0 UBC run that actually had them down a point. After tying it up, the Cougars brought Nicole Smith in to serve. Smith didn't disappoint as the Cougars won points on both of her serves to secure the match.

The Cougars even their record at 5-5 with the victory. UBC falls to 9-1, suffering their first loss of the season.

Mount Royal will travel to Langley next weekend to face the 10-0 Trinity Western Spartans for their final two games before the holiday break.

UBC will head back to Vancouver where they will get set to host the MacEwan Griffins for two games beginning on Friday night.