The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's volleyball team have finished sixth in the Canada West  in 2018-19.   The Pack closed out their regular season with a straight set win over the hometown University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat.  The scores on Saturday night were  25-22, 25-22,25-12.
The WolfPack finish the season at .500  (11-11).  The Heat wind up at 1-23.

With the victory, the WolfPack also clinched the men's portion of the President's Cup competition with their UBCO counterparts.  Thompson Rivers finished with four wins, two losses and a draw.   The wins coming in two basketball and one soccer game. The losses being in cross country and Friday night (Feb 15)'s five set loss to the Heat.
 
 SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack took the first set led by three kills apiece from  Tim Dobbert (5^th year, outside hitter, Aichelberg, Germany) and Sam Taylor Parks (4^th year, middle, Kelowna, BC).   Max Heppelll  had four kills for the Heat.

In the second set, spurred on by serves from Kyle Behiels (4^th year, middle, Edmonton, AB), the Pack scored four in a row to go up 7-4.  Later, three straight kills from Taylor Parks put the Pack up 12-7 and they led 16-9 at the tech time out.

The third set saw  TRU score six of the first seven points and then went on a 7-0 run to lead 22-9.  Charlie Bringloe (4^th year, outside hitter, Waterloo, ON) scored the final three points for the Pack on kills to win the match.
 
KEY STATS:
SCORES:
TRU               25    25   25    ---  3
UBCO:           22    22   12    ---  0


TRU

Charlie Bringloe: 14 kills in 27 opportunities, 5 digs, 1 service ace, 1 block assist
Sam Taylor Parks:  9 kills in 16 swings, 3 digs, 2 solo blocks, 4 block assists, 1 service ace
Tim Dobbert: 8 kills in 26 chances, 9 digs, 2 block assists
Landon Currie:13 digs, 5 assists
Kyle Behiels: 4 kills in 13 attempts, 1 block assist
Anton Napolitano: 32 assists, 5 digs
 
UBCO :
Max Heppell: 9 kills in 19 swings, 11 digs, 1 block assist
Hunter Scott: 5 kills in 13 opportunities, 5 digs
Morgan Nichols: 13 assist, 5 digs

RECORDS:
 TRU:11-11   UBCO: 1-23

THEY SAID IT (post match quotes):

TRU Head Coach Pat Hennelly:

On Match:  "It has been a struggle the second half.  I think guys are just trying to look at the outcomes. We knew last night that if we did our jobs we would be guaranteed sixth. Today we came into a situation. If we would have gone 3-1 it would have been a tie situation with UBC. They would have to count points for the whole season.  If we would have won 3-2 we would have wound up in seventh place. We had a lock on fifth or sixth. We over thought it starting with the Saskatchewan matches.  Credit to UBCO, their defensive intensity was excellent.  We had a little more composure today.


TRU middle Sam Taylor Parks (4^th year, Kelowna, BC):

On the win:  " Feels really good. Three sets. We came into today talking about how it had to be three or we would drop a couple of spots (in the standings).  We said all right, lets do it. It was as simple as that."

Says its sweet to win in his home town: " Oh ya. I was so excited for this weekend. I am excited every year to play UBCO. I was devastated yesterday. It was a hard loss. It feels really good."


UP NEXT:

The WolfPack will travel to Edmonton, Alberta next week to meet up with the third place University of Alberta Golden Bears. The best of three series opens Friday, February 22^nd at 6 pm MDT.  Game two is Saturday, February 23^rd at 5 pm MDT.  If a third match is needed it will be Sunday, February 24^th at 3 pm  MDT.
Other first round match ups have  Saskatchewan (5) at Mount Royal (4),  UBC (7) at Trinity Western (2) and Brandon (1)  hosting Calgary (8).
The semi finals (best two of three) will be held at the highest remaining seed with the winner of Brandon/Calgary facing the winner of Saskatchewan/Mount Royal.  The winner of the TRU/Alberta series faces the winner of Trinity Western/UBC.
All of the above matches can we viewed on a pay per view basis on www.canadawesttv.com.