KAMLOOPS – A young Thompson Rivers WolfPack women's volleyball team showed flashes of excellence but were unable to consistently match up with the UBC Thunderbirds in a 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-19) loss on Saturday evening.
After a back-and-forth first set that could have gone either way, a pair of dominant UBC runs in the second and third sets put the game out of reach.
UBC out-hit TRU .211 to .115 per cent as a team and also made five fewer service errors en route to the victory.
Rookie
Brooklyn Olfert was again a bright spot for the 'Pack, setting a new career-high with 11 kills in the match.
Erin Mutch added five kills and
Hayley McNaught finished with three kills and a pair of blocks.
Brynn Pasin paced the Thunderbirds with seven kills with Trinity Solecki adding six kills and three service aces.
The WolfPack played their best volleyball of the game in the first set. After getting into a six-point hole early, TRU went on an 11-6 run with
Faith Christensen recording a kill and an ace to send the teams into the technical timeout knotted up at 16 apiece. The squads traded points to 19-19 before a 5-1 run for UBC allowed the hosts to pull out the set.
TRU held a slim 7-6 lead in the second set before the Thunderbirds went on a massive 10-3 run, keyed by a pair of Pasin kills, to give UBC a 16-10 advantage. The WolfPack were unable to fight back from that deficit en route to the 25-16 set victory for UBC.
Doing their best to pull out a set victory in the the third frame just like they had the night prior, the WolfPack jumped out to a 5-2 edge. It was all Thunderbirds the rest of the way however, as a 17-5 run allowed them to ride an eight-point lead to the victory despite TRU fighting back late.
Next up for the WolfPack are their first Canada West home games of the second semester when they host the Fraser Valley Cascades inside the Tournament Capital Centre on January 21.
