The post season for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack begins tonight.  The WolfPack will be visiting the MacEwan University Griffins in a first round best of three Canada West women's volleyball playoff.

Game one is tonight (Thurs Feb 20, 2020) at 5 PM PDT at the David Atkinson Gym.

Games two and three would be played Friday (Feb 21) and Saturday (Feb 21) at the same gym.

The Griffins had the bye last week and finished in fourth place in the Canada West regular season (17-7) while the WolfPack  (16-8) were fifth after dropping a weekend series to the nations number one ranked, defending  USPORTS champion and Canada West first place team: the Trinity Western University Spartans.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES
:
These teams met at MacEwan just two weeks ago  (Feb7-8).  On the Friday, the WolfPack rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Griffins 17-25,23-25,25-22,26-24,15-13.
The WolfPack notched 106 digs in the match. That is the fourth highest in Canada West play this year.  Olga Savenchuk (2^nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) had 15 kills and 20 digs  Kseniya Kocyigit (1^st year, middle, Byaroza, Belarus) had 11 kills, five aces and four blocks.  Lauren Holmes (5^th year, outside hitter, Edmonton, AB)  had 17 kills  for the Griffins who got 16 kills from Haley Gilfillan (5^th year, middle, Edmonton, AB).

The next night (Sat Feb 8),  MacEwan won in straight sets (25-20,25-22,25-19). That was TRU's first loss of the season on a Saturday.  Avery Pottle (4^th year, middle, Uxbridge, ON) had eight kills for TRU with Savenchuk and Kocyigit adding seven kills.   McKenna Stevenson  (5^th year, middle, Spruce Grove, AB) and Holmes eadch had 11 kills for MacEwan.
 
RECORDS OF NOTE:

All time: the WolfPack have a 7-5 regular season record against the Griffins.  In Edmonton, MacEwan has a 4-2 advantage.
Prior to two weeks ago, the teams met November 25-25, 2016 in Edmonton. The WolfPack took the Friday night match 3-0 (25-21,25-21,25-20) and MacEwan won on the Saturday 3-1 (20-25,25-17,25-22,25-20).

During the 2014-15 season, the teams met at MacEwan on January 10-11, 2015 with the Griffins sweeping the weekend winning 3-1 the first night (25-12,25-22,18-25,25-15) and 3-2 the second (11-125,25-23,25-19,22-25,15-12).
 
STATISTICAL LEADERS:
TRU:
Kendra Finch (5^th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC): fifth in Canada West in kills (284). Led team in digs (288)
Kocyigit: fourth in Canada West in hitting percentage (.318). third on team in kills )177) and led WolfPack in blocks (91)
Savenchuk: second on team in kills (228) and digs (213) and third on team in total blocks (50)
Pottle: second on the team in blocks
Anastasiia Muzyka (3^rd year, setter, Poltawa, Ukraine)  now calls Edmonton home.  She led the Pack in assists (464) and second in service aces (24).

MACEWAN:

Rachel Jorvina (4^th year, libero, Edmonton, AB)  led Canada West in digs per set (4.45) and was third in overall digs (174).
Kylie Schubert (3^rd year, setter, Edmonton, AB) fourth in Canada West in assists per set (9.31).
Gilfillan:  third in Canada West in blocks per set (1.17), fifth in hitting percentage (.317). third on Griffins in kills 9191), led in service aces (42) and total blocks (102).
Stevenson:  second on Griffins in kills (217) and total blocks (81).
Holmes: led Griffins in kills (237), second in service aces (35), and third in digs (247)


COMMENTS OF WOLFPACK COACH CHAD GRIMM:
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1230311574608367616  

COMMENTS OF WOLFPACK OUTSIDE HITTER OLGA SAVENCHUK (2^ND YEAR, DONETSK, UKRAINE):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1230310883374485504  
 
COMMENTS OF WOLFPACK MIDDLE KSENIYA KOCYIGIT (1^ST YEAR, BYAROZA, BELARUS):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1230310481631408130
 
This week s matches can been seen on a pay per view basis on Canada West TV  presented by Co-op by accessing: https://cw.yaretv.com/.   Results will be available on the WolfPack social media platforms and their website  www.goWolfPack.ca.