The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack and the Trinity Western University Spartans will be going to a third and deciding match in their Canada West women's volleyball semi final.
After beating the Spartans, who entered the weekend as the number one ranked team in USPORTS in five sets on Thursday night (Feb 27), the WolfPack dropped a straight set decision to the host Spartans.  The scores at the Langley Events Center were 25-19,25-22, 25-22.

The Spartans were led offensively by Canada West first team all-star Hilary Howe (4^th year, outside hitter, Calgary, AB) with 11 kills in 35 chances. She added five digs.  Savannah Purdy (2^nd year, outside hitter, Victoria, BC) had six kills in 20 swings and a team high 13 digs.  Mikaelyn Sych (5^th year, middle, Airdire, AB) had four kills in 12 opportunities and four block assists while Dora Komlodi (3^rd year, setter, Calgary, AB) had 19 assists and six digs.

For Thompson Rivers, Canada West first team all-star Kendra Finch (5^th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) led the way with eight kills in 30 chances adding 12 digs and three assists.  Olga Savenchuk (2^nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) had six kills in 15 opportunities with eight digs and two service aces. Canada West second team all-star Kseniya Kocyigit (1^st year, middle, Byaroza, Belarus) had six kills in 17 chances and two block assists.    Anastasiia Muzyka (3^rd year, setter, Poltawa, Ukraine0 had 17 assists and four digs for Thompson Rivers.

The teams will play that third and deciding game—with a berth to not only the 2020 U SPORTS nationals in Calgary, Alberta up for grabs—but also a spot in the one match 'winner take all' Canada West gold medal match.    That match will be played sometime on Saturday (Feb29).  The time isn't known at this point due to the 2020 BC High School Girls Basketball championships being played at the same venue.

In this match, the Spartans looked poised and controlled from the opening point. They led 16-13 at the technical time out and got three kills a piece from Howe ,  Purdy and Ansah Odoom (2^nd year, outside hitter, Surrey, BC).  Odoom added two blocks and five digs in that opening set.
Thompson Rivers had three kills from  Kocyigit  along with Finch.  Finch added eight assists and five digs for Thompson Rivers in that first set.  Savenchuk had two kills and two assists in that set as well.

In the second, The WolfPack again struggled with some scrambly play on defense and some service errors.  After being down a couple of points, Thompson Rivers couldn't close the gap. They were down 16-13 at the tech time out.  Trinity, thanks to a serving run from Komlodi  scored five in a row at one point.   Howe had five kills for the Spartans in that set. Sych  had four kills and three blocks as well for Trinity Western, who took advantage of strong play by their middles.

Erin Mutch (2^nd year, outside hitter, Victoria, BC) had four kills in that set for TRU coming off the bench.  Finch also had four kills for the Pack.

In the third set, the WolfPack battled hard.  With Savenchuk serving, they notched three points in a row to take the lead and were up 19-16 at one point. However, with the Pack leading 22-19, the Spartans roared back and scored six in a row to salt away the victory and even up the series.

WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm stated afterwards," I felt that we couldn't really get over the hump tonight. I thought we got caught chasing a little bit. We were undisciplined at times. I think we wanted it so bad that sometimes we were trying to do too many jobs—doing other peoples jobs a little bit.  Credit to Trinity. Obviously they put more pressure on us offensively. We didn't block the same way as we did last night.  It was kind of 'flip the script' on that. They got a lot of quick points with their block and serve. That is the identity they play to. I thought they played really well to that. We didn't adjust super well to that.  Still, we were definitely in the fight in the second and third set and couldn't seem to get over that little hump and finish off one of those sets and push the match. We are looking forward to game three tomorrow."

 

TRU - Leaders
Kills	Kendra Finch (8), Olga Savenchuk (6), Kseniya Kocyigit (6)
Aces	Olga Savenchuk (2), Erin Mutch (1), Gabriela Podolski (1)
Blocks	Kseniya Kocyigit (2.0), Kendra Finch (1.0), Gabriela Podolski (1.0)
Assists	Anastasiia Muzyka (17), Abby Spratt (11), Kendra Finch (3)
Digs	Kendra Finch (12), Hali Drezet (9), Olga Savenchuk (8)
TWUW - Leaders
Kills	Hilary Howe (11), Savannah Purdy (6), Mikaelyn Sych (4)
Aces	Mikaelyn Sych (3), Avery Heppell (2), Savannah Purdy (2)
Blocks	Avery Heppell (9.0), Ansah Odoom (7.0), Mikaelyn Sych (4.0)
Assists	Dora Komlodi (19), Olivia Heinen (3), Emma Gamache (3)
Digs	Savannah Purdy (13), Emma Gamache (8), Dora Komlodi (6)

 
 
The other Canada West women's semi final began Friday night (Feb 28) at Mount Royal in Calgary.  The host Cougars lost to the Alberta Pandas 3-1.