It was a night of marathon women's volleyball at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops, BC on Friday (Nov 8).
After both having bye weeks, the Alberta Pandas and the TRU WolfPack went to a full five sets before Alberta prevailed 3-2. The scores were 25-18,25-18,23-25,21-25,16-14.
It was the first loss of the regular season for the WolfPack who fall to 4-1 while Alberta moves to 2-3.
The match was marked by a brilliant individual performance by Pandas outside hitter Kory White. The fourth year from Edmonton, Alberta had 37 scoring points which is a new single match record for 2019-20. The victory was also the 799
th career one for Alberta coach Laurie Eisler. Eisler is now into her 28 th year of coaching.
The WolfPack rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth and deciding set.
White had 33 kills in 76 attempts with three service aces, 12 digs, and two block assists.
TRU was led by
Olga Savenchuk (2
nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine). She had 16 kills in 38 swings with 20 digs, a service ace and a block assist.
SYNOPSIS:
Of the two teams, it was the Pandas who looked more locked into their game as they quickly took a two set to nothing lead. White had 10 kills after those two sets while Savenchuk led the Pack offensive with six kills.
The Pack got on track in the third set as they withstood a nine kill set from White by getting two kills a piece from
Avery Pottle (4
th year, outside hitter, Uxbridge, ON) and
Kseniya Kocyigit (1
st year, middle, Byarosa, Belarus).
Thompson Rivers won the fourth set when head coach
Chad Grimm brought in
Morgan Rigelhof (4
th year, outside hitter, St. Albert, AB) and she got the 24
th point on a kill and then went to the line and served an ace to win the set. That stanza also saw
Kendra Finch (5
th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) break out of a mini slump with five kills.
In the fifth set, the Pack took a 10-7 lead and led 14-12 at one point before Alberta notched two straight double blocks to tie things up. They then got a solo block from Julia Zonneveld (3
rd year, outside, Calgary, AB) before setter Elyse Hart (3
rd year, Bragg Creek, AB) notched a service ace to win the match.
Zonneveld had 15 kills in 43 chances with 19 digs and five block assists for Alberta who had 52 assists from Hart. She added 10 digs and two block assists to go with two service aces.
For TRU. Kocyigit had nine kills while Finch and Pottle added eight kills a piece.
HIGHLIGHTS:
https://youtu.be/h2GJNF9Lg-o
THEY SAID IT!
WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm (6th season):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193063576056975360
Alberta head coach Laurie Eisler (28 th season):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193063531442106368
Thompson Rivers setter Abby Spratt (4th year, Calgary, AB):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193063452677304321
NEXT UP:
The two teams have a short turn around as they will meet again on the champ court at the Tournament Capital Centre on Saturday (Nov 9) at 5 pm. You can see that match on a pay-per-view basis on Canada West TV presented by Co op by accessing:
https://cw.yaretv.com/.
The husband and wife duo of James and Katie Matthews (formerly Woo) will have the play by play and commentary.
Spratt was named "The Den" Leader of the Pack player of the match. She had 37 assists in five sets with six digs and three service aces.
