In a battle of two of the nationals top university women’s volleyball teams, The number 10 ranked Thompson Rivers University WolfPack beat the number eight rated University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1.
The scores on Saturday (Nov 23) were 25-23,25-15,21-25,25-14. The WolfPack move to 8-2 on the year while UBC falls to 6-4.
Leading the way for the WolfPack it was Kendra Finch with 13 kills and two service aces while Kseniya Kocyigit added nine kills and a match high three service aces, Olga Savenchuk recorded six kills and matched the game high three service aces. For UBC it was Gabrielle Attieh that registered a game high 14 kills and two service aces while Heather Pippus added 10 kills and three digs.
SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack went on a 4-0 run early in the first set and erased a 5-2 deficit. The Thunderbirds rallied to tie at 15 before Thompson Rivers won that 16th point to go into the tech time out with the lead. With UBC leading 22-21, the Pack called a time out. They won the first set on a kill from Kendra Finch (5th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) to win 25-23. An entertaining first set saw the teams trade points before TRU took a two point 19-17 lead thanks toKocyigit’s deep kill into the ‘Birds backcourt led to the hosts calling a timeout. Out of the break it was a Cara Kovacs block and tip that gave the T-Birds 22-21 lead but it was short lived thanks to Kendra Finch making her presence felt with a key block pushing the Wolfpack to set point at 24-23 before Finch followed up with an emphatic kill to secure the 25-23 win and 1-0 advantage. Savenchuk set the tone for the visitors with four kills while Finch and Kocyigit added three kills each. For UBC Anna Price led the way with four kills while Attieh recorded two service aces.
That momentum carried the WolfPack into the second set. They took a 3-0 lead. After UBC cut the deficit to 7-4, the teams exchanged points with TRU going into the tech time out with a 16-10 advantage. .UBC’s Attieh who recorded a set high six kills would record three in a row to draw even at 3-3 but TRU would pull away once again to build a healthy 16-10 lead at the technical timeout. A Kocyigit kill gave the visitors set point at 24-15 before Gabriella Podolski provided the final kill for a 25-15 set win. Finch recorded a set high five kills for TRU while Avery Pottle registered two service aces . The WolfPack thanks in part to six service aces and three blocks compared to UBC’s nothing in both catagories that set
UBC did rebound in the third stanza. The teams exchanged points until the Thunderbirds led at 10-9 and increased their lead to four (16-12) at the time out. The Pack went on a bit of a run to cut their deficit to one at 20-19 before UBC won the third set 25-21. The Thunderbirds with 18 kills in the set to TRU’s 11. The Pack did have two service aces to UBC’s none and two blocks to none for the T-Birds.
In the fourth frame the Wolfpack found their earlier rhythm and efficiency in building a convincing lead highlighted by Kocyigit’s third ace of match put TRU up 14-6. The visitors would keep rolling in extending their advantage to 19-6 and prompting a UBC timeout. The ‘Birds would respond with a mini run before Erin Mutch provided the final kill in the 25-14 fourth set win and 3-1 match victory.
“I think it was a good bounce back,” said TRU head coach Chad Grimm. “We were obviously disappointed with last night’s performance, we didn’t think we made the best impression of ourself and if we want to be a good team we can’t lose two games in a row. It was nice for the girls to come out and put together a performance tonight, it was a bit of a role reversal from last night, we were in system and made it tough on them to attack from balls in the middle of the court which is tough.”
UP NEXT:
Thompson Rivers will close out the pre Christmas portion of their 2019-20 Canada West regular season next weekend (Nov 29-30) when they head East to take on the Huskies and the University of Saskatchewan. The Thunderbirds will close things out on the road as well. They will visit the Golden Bears at the University of Alberta.
The next home matches for the WolfPack will be Friday, January 10, 2020 when the University of Manitoba Bisons pay a visit to the Tournament Capital Centre. Game time will be 5 PM PDT.
All of the above games can been seen on a pay per view basis on Canada West TV presented by Co-op by accessing: https://cw.yaretv.com/. Results will be available on the WolfPack social media platforms and their website www.goWolfPack.ca.
(With help from UBC Sports Information)
[SOURCE: Thompson Rivers University]