It was a .500 weekend for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's volleyball team. After beating the Alberta Golden Bears on Friday (Nov 8), the Pack came up short on Saturday night (Nov 9) at the Tournament Capital Centre.

Alberta took the Pack 3-0. The scores 25-21,25-20,25-19.  The Golden Bears move to 4-2 on the year while TRU falls to 1-5.

Alberta was led by Jackson Kennedy (3^rd year, outside, Edmonton, AB)  who had 11 kills in 22 chances.   Max Elgert (4^th year, setter, Athabasca, AB) had 29 assists, five service aces, four digs, one solo block and one block assist. Billy Johnstone (1^st year, outside hitter, Gisborne, New Zealand) had eight kills in13 tries with one dig and three block assists. Jordan Canham (2^nd year,outside hitter, Newington, ON), the Canada West kills per set leader was limited to six kills on 18 chances with 10 digs and three block assists.

Thompson Rivers was led by Charlie Bringloe (5^th year, outside hitter, Waterloo, ON) who had 12 kills in 21 chances with three service aces.  Sam Taylor Parks (5^th year, middle, Kelowna, BC) had 8 kills on 13 chances. He added one dig and three block assists.   Anton Napolitano (4^th year, setter, Victoria, AUS) had 20 assists, six digs a solo block and a block assist.

SYNOPSIS:

The first set was a see saw battle with the Golden Bears taking the early lead before the Pack came back and then Alberta captured the set 25-21.  Thompson Rivers held  Canheim to a .000 percent attack (two kills but two efforts).   Johnstone had three kills on six swings for Alberta while  Bringloe  had five kills on nine attempts.

The second set saw TRU jump out to a lead which was quickly erased to a one point deficit (10-9) causing WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly to call a time out. The Bears captured the second set 25-20 led by  Kennedy who had four kills on six swings.  George Hobern (4^th year, middle, Sherwood Park, AB) added three kills himself on the three swings he had in the set.  Bringloe and Nimo Benne (1^st year, outside hitter, Castricum, Netherlands) had three kills a piece for the Pack who had four service errors in that set compared to only two for Alberta
The second set featured the first "Elgert vs Elgert" battle of 2019-20 as Sam of TRU (2^nd year) took to the court against older brother Max (4^th year) of the Golden Bears.  It came with Alberta leading 13-12. Max's Bears won the point before Sam was taken out.`   He later came back into the contest with the Pack down 12-8  and played the remainder of the match at setter.

HIGHLIGHTS:
https://youtu.be/tt-iXJtZ95U
 
THEY SAID IT!

WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly:
 
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193413215943684098 
 
Alberta head coach Brock Davidiuk (1^st year):
 
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193413215943684098 

WolfPack setter Samuel Elgert (2^nd year, Athabaska, AB):

https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1193413127477452800  
 
NEXT UP:

 The WolfPack have another bye week as the TRU women will entertain the University of Regina Cougars next week (Nov 15-16). The Golden Bears will head home to entertain the Winnipeg Wesmen  next weekend .