The most successful season in the history of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's volleyball program is over.

The WolfPack were beaten in straight sets by the hometown Mount Royal University Cougars in the Canada West bronze medal match Friday night (Mar 6) at the Kenyon Center. The scores were 25-21, 25-16,25-12.  The medal was the first in the history of Mount Royal since joining Canada West.  With the victory, the Cougars will move onto the 2020 USPORTS nationals to be hosted by the University of Calgary next week.

This was a night where the 'volleyball gods' weren't shining on the WolfPack.  A lot of the bounces did not go their way along with some nervousness.  In addition, a raucous crowd consisting of a lot of the Mount Royal student athletes spurred on the Cougars.

The WolfPack were led on the night by Kseniya Kocyigit (1^st year, middle, Byaroza, Belarus).  She had seven kills and two service aces to be named the TRU player of the match.  Olga Savenchuk (2^nd year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine had six kills, six digs and one block.  Avery Pottle (4^th year, middle, Uxbridge, ON) had five kills and two blocks.   Abby Spratt (4^th year, setter, Calgary, AB) had 14 assists.  Hali Drezet (4^th year, libero, Prince George, BC) had six digs.
Kendra Finch (5^th year, outside hitter, North Vancouver, BC) had four kills on 23 chances with five digs in her final University match.

Mount Royal was led by Cassidy Kitchen (4^th year, outside hitter, Terrace, BC) with 16 kills and six digs.  Chantel Park (5^th year, outside hitter, Blackfalds, AB) had 11 kills and two service aces.  Dholi Thokbuom (2^nd year, middle, Calgary, AB) had eight kills, two service aces and two blocks.   Quinn Pelland (3^rd year, setter, Wanham, AB) had 35 assists and eight digs while Carly Davies (4^th year, right side, Terrace, BC) had six digs and three blocks.

The first set saw Mount Royal lead 16-11 at the tech time out and get five kills from Park with four coming from Kitchen and Thokbuom. Thompson Rivers was led by Pottle and Savenchuk with four kills a piece. Kocyigit had two service aces for the Pack.

In the second set, the Cougars jumped to a 9-4 lead before TRU head coach Chad Grimm called his first time out.  The Pack were down by four (16-12) at the technical time out. Pottle and Finch had two kills for TRU in that set.  Park had four for Mount Royal.

The third set saw TRU start strong but the Cougars led by ten at the time out (16-8) and despite a late rally,  the WolfPack could never find their rhythm.

After the match Grimm stated, " Not the way we wanted to end the season. I thought we came out fairly well and played tight. They came out fired up and their home crowd was behind them.  I thought the first two sets, we had some chances. In the third set we couldn't stop them. Obviously, the serve and pass game got to us a bit. I don't think that takes away from the season that girls produced. Hopefully this is a lesson moving forward.  Always a disappointment to end the season with a loss. There is only one team which ends the season winning. Unfortunately, that won't be us. Hopefully we can use this experience moving forward."

Kocyigit was named the player of the match for TRU with Kitchen chosen as the player of the match for Mount Royal.

Despite the loss, there were a lot of positives in the performance of the TRU squad this year: they were ranked nationally a number of times, captured their first Canada West playoff series (a first round sweep of MacEwan), had two Canada West all-stars (Finch and Kocyigit) and a major award winner (Finch as Canada West community service athlete of the year).

As Coach Grimm and the fans look towards the 2020-21 season, the entire Thompson Rivers roster aside from the graduating Finch are eligible to return.
Mount Royal will join the Alberta Pandas, Trinity Western Spartans and the host Calgary Dinos at the USPORTS women's volleyball nationals.