The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women’s volleyball team has seen their winning streak come to an end. The WolfPack were beaten 3-1 before over 800 fans at UBC on Friday night (Nov 22)
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The scores in Canada West play were 25-23, 25-21,10-25,25-15.  Thompson Rivers, the number 10 ranked team in the nation is now 7-2 on the year while the eighth ranked UBC Thunderbirds are 6-3.

Anna Price led the way for the T-Birds with 13 kills and two service aces, Gabrielle Attieh added 11 kills while Jayde Robertsen and Heather Pippus chipped in with eight kills each. Kendra Finch recorded a game high 17 kills for TRU and Olga Savenchuk delivered nine more for the visitors.
 
“I was really pleased with how we came out,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. “That’s a team that has only lost one match this season, and they have some very experienced players, so the way we won the tight first two sets was really good. The third set showed the balance there can be and what they could do when we weren’t really going. The biggest complement to our team is how we rebounded in that fourth set after they were rolling.”
 
An exciting first set saw the teams trade points before a Robertsen service ace put UBC up 11-7 causing TRU to call a timeout. The hosts would keep the pressure on en route to a Price kill that led to a 16-12 advantage at the technical timeout. A Gabrielle Attieh kill followed by a block put the ‘Birds ahead 22-19 ahead of Kseniya Kocyigit picking up an emphatic kill, one of her five in the opening set to bring the visitors within one at 23-22. In the end, it was Price delivering her fourth kill of the frame to clinch the 25-23 victory and 1-0 lead.
 
To open the second set TRU executed well in building a 9-5 lead and forcing UBC to take a timeout. The break allowed the ‘Birds to regroup as Heather Pippus took over with two consecutive kills, the first leading to set point before striking again to secure the 25-21 win and 2-0 advantage. Price led the ‘Birds with six kills in the set followed by Pippus and Attieh with three each, meanwhile for TRU Finch delivered a set high four kills.
 
The third set was all TRU with the visitors jumping out to a 5-0 lead and causing UBC to call an early timeout. The Wolfpack would continue to pour it on en route to a convincing 25-10 win to pull within one at 2-1. Leading the way for TRU was Olga Savenchuk, Kendra Finch and Gabriela Podolski with three kills each while Kseniya Kocyigit added two kills of her own.
 
After a disjointed third frame the T-Birds rebounded well in the fourth and despite Finch registering a set high eight kills for the visitors, it was back to back kills from Jayde Robertsen and Gabrielle Attieh that gave the ‘Birds a 21-15 lead to force a TRU timeout. Following the break, a Pippus service ace led to a UBC match point before Price delivered the final kill for the 25-15 win and 3-1 match victory.
 
“I thought we competed hard, “said WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm. ” A lot of that was us struggling offensively. We were out of system a lot. We didn’t pass great and UBC served the ball tough.   That combination of things made it tough on our offense. I thought as the match went on we started to find our rhythm a little  bit. For the most part, we blocked the ball well. We just couldn’t get that first contact fast enough to put some speed into the game and put pressure on them. Hopefully we can rebound tomorrow.”

The teams wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at 5 PM PDT.

Thompson Rivers will end the pre-Christmas portion of their regular season next week (Nov 29-30) in Saskatchewan meeting the Huskies.
 
(With help from UBC Sports Information)

[SOURCE: Thompson Rivers University]