The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's volleyball team took a number of big strides this Canada West season. This included taking one of the top programs in the country—the University of Alberta Pandas to a full three games in their quarter final series.
Such was the case (Sunday, Feb 24) at the Saville Centre in Edmonton. The Pandas, the host of this year's U SPORTS women's volleyball nationals, needed four sets to eliminate the upstart WolfPack in their playoff series.
In Alberta's 3-1 victory, the scores were 25-17,21-25,25-16,25-14.
With the victory, Alberta will meet the Trinity Western University Spartans in a best of three Canada West semi final opening Thursday (Feb 28).
SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack took the Pandas to a number of long rallies in this match. TRU's playoff inexperience might have cost them a little as they committed 29 attack errors to Alberta's 15. The Pandas had 79 digs to Thompson River's 77. Alberta had 11 blocks in the match compared to TRU's 7.
In the second set, TRU led from wire to wire to garner their lone set victory and had four of their eight service aces in that frame. In both the first and second set, the Pack had an early 4-1 lead. In the opening period they gave that up while in the second set they maintained it.
In the third set, a strong second half led the Pandas to victory. Kory White had back to back service aces in the fourth set to give Alberta an 8-6 lead. Both teams had long runs in that final stanza, Alberta scoring four in a row followed by four straight by Thompson Rivers.White later got the match winning point on a kill.
Offensively,
Olga Savenchuk (1
st year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) had 15 kills while
Kendra Finch (4
th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) added 15.
Alberta was led by White, who had 26 kills. Julia Zonneveld had nine kills, 29 digs, and two solo blocks. Erin Corbett had eight kills and nine digs.
SCORES:
ALBERTA: 25 21 25 25 ---3
TRU: 17 25 16 14 ---1
KEY STATS:
TRU
Olga Savenchuk: 15 kills in 36 chances, 19 digs, 1 service ace
Kendra Finch: 11 kills in 61 opportunities, 11 digs, block assist
Anastasiia Muzyka: 40 assists, 14 digs, 3 block assists
Gabriela Podolski: 5 kills in 18 swings, 2 service aces, 7 digs
Avery Pottle: 5 kills in 23 chances, 2 service aces, 3 digs, 1 solo block, 1 block assist
Elizabeth Reimer: 5 kills in 8 opportunities, 2 solo blocks, 3 block assists
ALBERTA:
Kory White: 26 kills in 51 attempts, 8 digs, 2 service aces, 1 block assist
Julia Zonneveld : 9 kills in 24 swings, 29 digs, 2 solo blocks
Erin Corbett: 8 kills in 38 chances, 2 service aces, 9 digs, 4 block assists
Mariah Walsh: 44 assists, 6 digs, 1 solo block, 2 block assists
THEY SAID IT! (post match quotes):
TRU head coach Chad Grimm
On match: " Obviously disappointing to end our season against a quality Alberta team. I give Alberta a lot of credit. They played tough and really consistent. They were good on defence and their service game was sharp. They put us under pressure. We got stuck a couple of times and couldn't find a solution to get out of a couple of rotations. I thought overall our battle level was good. We were in the fight. The first two sets we split and in the third set we had a shot until midway through the set a run took the wind out of our sails. The same in the fourth. It was close midway and Alberta's consistent pressure didn't allow us to get over the hump. Overall, I was proud of the girls. They made a lot of headway this year. Hopefully we can use this to push ourselves in the off season and come back with a little more experience and go on a deep run."
UP NEXT:
With Alberta's win, all four of the remaining Canada West teams in the playoffs get automatic berths to the U SPORTS Nationals in a couple of weeks. Trinity Western, UBC and Calgary will all be the Canada West reps as the league gets three spots along with Alberta holding the host team position. All of the Canada West semi final and final matches can we viewed on a pay per view basis on www.canadawesttv.com.
