CALGARY – Sophia Hansen led all players with 17 kills to go with nine digs as the University of Calgary Dinos women's volleyball team picked up a big 3-1 win (22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-22) over city rival Mount Royal Friday night from Kenyon Court.

The win is a big one for Calgary, as they move to 7-10 and just one game back of a tie for the eighth place in the league standings.

With the loss, Mount Royal falls to 4-13.

Three Dinos players finished the night with 10-plus kills. In addition to Hansen's big night, Leni Blanke finished one shy of her career high with 11 kills and seven digs, while Ashley Ditchfield added a season-best 10 kills on just 22 swings for a .409 hitting clip in the win. Ditchfield also led the way defensively at the net with a season-best six blocks.

Anya Fehr dished out 36 assists in the four-set win while stuffing the stat sheet with eight digs, six kills and four blocks.

Defensively, rookie Kalyssa Komori led all players in this one with 12 digs, while teammate Evvia Belireau added 11. 

Sydney Scatcherd led the way for Mount Royal with 12 kills to go with nine digs, while Mya Morgan added 11 kills while hitting .261.

After dropping a close first set, the Dinos roared out to an 11-3 start and never looked back. Miranda Baines closed the second out with a kill to draw the match level at 1-1.

The two teams traded the first 22 points of the third before Calgary took over. Knotted up at 11-all, the Dinos used strong defensively play at the net and took advantage of some MRU errors to jump ahead, 20-12 before cruising the 2-1 lead.

It was the Cougars that jumped to the big early advantage in the fourth, going ahead 13-7, only to see the Dinos go on an 8-0 run to jump back on top, 15-13. Things stayed tight at 22-all, but the Dinos pushed things to set point where Ditchfield and Fehr teamed up for the game-winning block.

Calgary finished the night with a 13-4 edge in blocks and a 51-42 advantage in kills, while MRU had a 10 aces to the Dinos' four.

The two rivals are right back at it Saturday at 7 p.m. again from Kenyon Court.

-UC-