KAMLOOPS – They pushed it to a fourth set, but an early hole proved to be too big for the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women's volleyball team to climb out of in a 3-1 (25-12, 25-18, 21-25, 25-17) loss at the hands of the UBC Thunderbirds.
Playing in their first Canada West game since all the way back on November 13, some early rust from the WolfPack was their undoing in the loss out on the road.
Erin Mutch once again led the way offensively for the 'Pack, finishing with a game-high 11 kills.
Brooklyn Olfert had one of the best games of her young WolfPack career with the first year from Winnipeg recording nine kills and 14 digs.
Hadley Schmidt directed the offence to the tune of 20 assists.
Trinity Solecki, Jayde Robertsen and Claire Cossarini paced the Thunderbirds with 9, 8 and 8 kills respectively. Gisella Goodger put up a massive six service aces to go along with 34 assists.
As a team the Thunderbirds compiled 13 service aces to the WolfPack's four, while also out-blocking the 'Pack 16-5.
After a first set that was all Thunderbirds, the WolfPack came to life in the second frame.
With Mutch recording three kills early and a pair of points from both
Hayley McNaught and
Seray Altay, the 'Pack trailed by just four points at the technical timeout. The Thunderbirds would win eight of the next ten points however to extend their lead before collecting the 25-18 victory.
The WolfPack picked up their second set win of the season in the third. Five kills from Olfert and some tremendous last-gasp desperation defending from the entire WolfPack squad saw them pick up the 25-21 set victory.
TRU continued to fight in the fourth set and trailed by just three points at the technical timeout before UBC ran away late for the set and match win.
These teams will be back in action tomorrow at 3 p.m. and that game can be watched live on canadawest.tv.
