The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack have extended their winning streak to three as they swept the Manitoba Bisons in weekend Canada West women's volleyball play.  
For the second straight night, the Pack took the Bisons in three straight sets. The scores on Saturday (Jan 11) at the Tournament Capital Center were 25-22, 25-13.25-18.
Thompson Rivers moves to 12-4 on the season.  Manitoba dips to 2-14 and have now lost 10 matches in a row .

The WolfPack were led by Canada West first team all-star Olga Savenchuk (2^nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk , Ukriane).   She had 18 kills in 28 swings with two assists, four digs and three block assists.  Kendra Finch (5^th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) added 11 kills in 27 opportunities. She added nine digs, two assists, a service ace and two block assists .   Abby Spratt (4^th year, setter, Calgary, AB) had  31 assists, six service aces, and four digs. 

Manitoba was led by  Jaidyn Spencer (1^st year, middle, Bloomington, MN) and Allison Alcock (5^th year, middle, East Selkirk, MB). Both had seven kills.  Spencer had 17 swings while Alcott had 14 chances.  Sydney Booker (5^th year, setter, Winnipeg, MB) had 16  assists, a service ace and four digs.


SYNOPSIS:

The WolfPack juggled their lineup to start the match inserting Erin Mutch (2^nd year, Victoria, BC) at outside hitter and Spratt  at setter in the starting lineup.  The teams opened up exchanging points until, tied 5-5, the Pack scored five in a row to take a lead.  One of those points was a huge double block by  Savenchuk and Kseniya Kocyigit (1^st year, middle, Byanroza, Belarus). After the Bisons made a double sub, they scored  five in a row to reduce the deficit to one (11-10).  Down 14-12, Manitoba took advantage of a rotation error and then a service ace by Booker to tie the set at 14.  The Pack scored the next two to lead 16-14 going into the first technical time out. The Bisons were playing with a lot of confidence and took advantage of a slow start by Thompson Rivers. They took a lead  (19-18, 21-20) on a pair of TRU net violations.  Savenchuk made some key kills in the first set and had nine scoring points as the Pack took the opener 25-22. Alcott  had four kills in eight swings for Manitoba in the first set.

Thompson Rivers jumped out to a early 3-0 lead in the second set and despite closing the difference to a single point, the Bisons found themselves down seven at the tech time out (16-9).   After winning the first point after the time out, Manitoba gave up the next three points to trail by nine (19-10).  Despite their lead, the Pack gave up three service errors in a row to see their lead go to ten (23-13). They captured the second stanza 25-13 as Anastasiia Muzyka (3^rd year, setter, Poltawa, Ukraine) capped things off with a service ace.  Savenchuk and Finch  each had four kills in the second set for TRU in that set.   At this point, the WolfPack had six team blocks to Manitoba's one.

That momentum propelled TRU as they opened up a 10 point lead (11-1). With the Pack leading 13-4, Chad Grimm inserted Siobhan Toal (2^nd year, outside hitter, Edmonton, AB) who made her Canada West debut. The Bisons rallied and went on a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 14-11.   It was the WolfPack who led 16-11 at the tech time out.  Following two back to back service aces from Mutch, Thompson Rivers extended their lead to eight (19-11). Manitoba did score three in a row to cut the score to 22-17 but the Pack went onto win the set and the match 25-18 as Savenchuk closed things out with a kill and her 25 th scoring point of the evening.  Savenchuk was named "The Den Leader of the Pack player of the match."
 
HIGHLIGHTS:

https://youtu.be/4f3xjlvvcfE
 
THEY SAID IT!

WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm (6^th season):
 
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1216240322558062595 
 
WolfPack outside hitter, Olga Savenchuk (2^nd year, Donetsk, Ukraine):

https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1216239707132026880  

Manitoba head coach Ken Bentley (33^rd season):
 
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1216240438765506560 
 
 
NEXT UP:
Next weekend (Jan 17-18), Thompson Rivers will be on the road at Mount Royal while Manitoba will entertain the UBC Thunderbirds.  The next home match for the WolfPack will be Friday, January 24^th when they entertain the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat.  Match time will be 6:45 PM PDT.

Those matches are available on a pay-per-view basis on Canada West TV presented by Co-op.  You can access it by accessing: https://cw.yaretv.com/.  
Results will be available on the WolfPack social media platforms and their website  www.goWolfPack.ca.