LANGLEY, B.C. – They fought and clawed their way back in the fourth set and came within a point of sending it to a fifth, but the University of Calgary Dinos fell 3-1 to the top-ranked Trinity Western Spartans Friday night.

The 25-22, 25-13, 16-25, 27-25 win helped the No. 1 Spartans improve to 10-1, while the loss drops the No. 7 Dinos to 6-5.

"Our fight was great, but we didn't take advantage of some opportunities, and our lack of a serve and pass game was the difference in the match," said Calgary head coach Jesse Knight.

Kara Jansen Van Doorn with 13 kills, five aces and seven digs and Amy Leschied with 10 kills, eight digs and two blocks led the Spartans, while Lindsey Doland with 14 kills and Brooke Halvorsen with a match high 17 digs led the Dinos. In her return from the Canadian National Team TWU setter Lauren O'Reilly finished with 38 set assists to lead the Spartan attack.

The first set of the night opened with both teams looking to take control and set the tone for the match. The two teams battled back-and-forth for much of the set before the Spartans prevailed 25-22. The Spartans led 8-6 at the first break, with the Dinos leading 16-15 at the second break. Calgary extended their lead to 19-15 out of the break after three straight service aces from Sarah Moncks. 

After at TWU timeout the Spartans regrouped and started to take control of the set. The Spartans took the next three points to tie the set at 19-19 after a Nicole Bazin kill. Then after the teams exchanged the next four points to remain tied at 21-21 the Spartans got the separation that they needed with another three straight points to take a 24-21 lead. A TWU service error gave the Dinos the next point before Alicia Perrin closed out the set 25-22 for the Spartans.

TWU carried the momentum into the second set as they jumped out to an 8-6 lead at the first beak. The set changed dramatically with TWU up 11-9. From that point the Spartans outscored the Dinos 14 to four to take the set 25-13. The Spartans did not have a strong hitting set, only hitting at 19 percent, but the Dinos only managed a negative 8.7 percent.

The Dinos came scrambling back in the third set as they jumped out to an 8-4 lead. TWU battled back to close the gap to one point, 10-9. The two teams matched each other through the middle portion of the set, which had TWU still trailing by one point at 14-13. But in a reversal of the second set the Dinos powered through to prevent a sweep with a solid 12-3 run.

The Dinos found their rhythm in the set and hit for an impressive 45.8 hitting percentage, while TWU hit at 25 percent. Kara Jansen Van Doorn and Doland each added four kills to their match total of 10 kills.

The fourth set looked to be the Spartans right from the start as the serving of Kara Jansen Van Doorn sparked TWU to jump out to an impressive 12-1 lead. The Dinos closed slightly to 17-10, before TWU extended the lead back to 12 points at 22-10. But the Dinos kept battling down the stretch and closed to 23-19 and forced TWU into a timeout.

The timeout didn't slow Calgary down as they took a 25-24 lead after a service ace by Ella Valge-Saar and an impressive 15-2 run. The Spartans bent but did not break as TWU went back to Jansen Van Doorn, who had subbed out earlier, for the final point. The fifth year outside hitter got her final kill of the evening to give TWU the heart-stopping fourth set 27-25.

“Quite a run," said Knight. "Lindsay Russell was great serving, but we took it to another level offensively and the backcourt really fought.

"We fight like heck and I have to be happy with that, but we need to start executing to be successful."

The Dinos get one more chance to knock off the top-ranked Spartans Saturday night, with first serve set for 6 p.m. MT at the Langley Events Centre.

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