The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack found themselves down two straight sets Friday night (Nov 29) in Canada West women’s volleyball play in Saskatoon.
The Pack rallied but fell short in five sets to the host University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The scores were 25-22,25-18,15-25,32-34,15-11. The result leaves both teams tied for third place in the Canada West with identical 8-3 records.
The WolfPack were led by Olga Savenchuk (2nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) with 14 kills and five blocks. Kseniya Kocyigit (1st year, middle, Byroza, Belarus) had 12 kills five service aces and three blocks. Kendra Finch (5th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) had 11 kills, 12 digs and two service aces.
Abby Spratt (4th year, setter, Calgary, AB) had 31 assists and two service aces. Anastasiia Muzyka (3rd year, setter, Poltawa, Ukraine) added 19 assists. Hali Drezet (4th year, libero, Prince George, BC) had 19 digs.
Saskatchewan was led by Emily Koshinsky with 18 kills while Mandi Fraser added 14. Averie Allard had 55 assists and six blocks while Shae Beaulieu had 19 digs.
Says head coach Chad Grimm, ” I think we came out pretty flat, waiting for things to happen a little bit. Saskatchewan passed the ball well and we were a little tentative with our serving. They were in system a lot and with a balanced team that is hard to defend against. To the girls credit, they battled back hard in the second and third set. It continue din the fourth. The match was scrappy. Both teams were playing aggressive. It was a good level of volleyball. We got it to the fifth set and at that point it is anybody’s ball game. I think we ran out of gas after putting out so much effort and energy to battle back. We hit a bit of a wall late in the fifth set unfortunately. We have some things to build on for tomorrow.”
The two teams will play again Saturday (Nov 30) in Saskatoon with a 1 pm PDT start time. It will be the final match for both teams before the pre-Christmas break.
[SOURCE: Thompson Rivers University]