KELOWNA – The Bobcat women's volleyball team earned a five-set road victory over the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday night.

A convincing 25-14 fourth set victory from the Heat would push the match into five and while the Heat led early 7-6, the Bobcats would score seven of the ensuing eight points to capture the fifth 15-11. This was the first time all season UBCO played a fifth set.

Brandon improves their Canada West record to 3-6 while the Heat are at 1-8 in conference play following the tight loss.

Three Heat attackers finished in double-figures in terms of kills in the match, led by Ann Richards who had 13 kills to go with 11 digs for a double-double. Middle Aidan Lea (11) and rookie Sydney Grills (10) would also pace the UBCO attack.

Nikala Majewski was the focal point of the 'Cats attack all night as she had a team-high 18 kills along with nine digs and three service aces. The visitors would have 11 service aces in the match led by Jamie Bain with four.

The two teams would be fairly even on the stat sheet in most the important categories. The Heat had the slight advantage in terms of total kills (52-51), blocks (13-12) and hitting percentage (.218 - .174), while Brandon had more service aces (11-10) and fewer reception errors (11-9).

The two teams will be back on the floor on Saturday night in Kelowna.

In the opening set, six straight Heat points would tie the set up at 23 all in the first but a kill from Jamie Bain gave the Bobcats an opportunity at set point and they would capitalize on a hitting error from the hometown Heat to take the opener 25-23.  

It was a fast start in the second frame for UBCO,  they led 16-10 at the media timeout, and while the Bobcats cut the deficit to just one at 21-20, the Heat closed out the set strong by winning four of the final five points.

In the third, the 'Cats would score the first point of the set and never relinquish the lead in the race to 25 points. They led 16-12 at the technical timeout and built upon this by closing out the third 25-18 and taking a 2-1 set lead on the Heat.

The Heat scored nine straight points early in the fourth frame and built a big lead that would be too much to overcome for the visiting Bobcats. The UBCO attack would fire 12 kills on 27 total attacks in the set and had just three total errors.