Ema Palkovicova
Jordie Arthur / UFV Athletics
1
Thompson Rivers TRU 6-14, 6-14
3
Winner UFV UFV 17-3, 17-3
Thompson Rivers TRU
6-14, 6-14
1
Final
3
UFV UFV
17-3, 17-3
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Thompson Rivers TRU 23 22 25 22 (1)
UFV UFV 25 25 22 25 (3)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball | | TRU WolfPack

Resilient WolfPack push No. 6 ranked Cascades

QUICK FIRE
  • The Thompson Rivers WolfPack women's volleyball team more than held their own Saturday night as they pushed the No. 6 ranked UFV Cascades before falling 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22) in Abbotsford.
DIFFERENCE MAKERS
  • Brooklyn Olfert continued her climb up the Canada West leaderboard with 19 kills on just 40 attacks. Ema Palkovicova and Keira Gent both added 13 kills and two assists apiece. Setter Libby Meldrum racked up 38 assists.
  • Gabrielle Attieh led UFV with 11 kills while middle Mo Likness had 10 while hitting .429 per cent.
HOW IT HAPPENED
  • After falling into an early hole, the WolfPack came storming back in a close first set. Fraser Valley jumped out to a 15-5 edge before TRU made things interesting late. Back-to-back service aces from Gent started a 'Pack run that saw them come all the way back to within one point at 21-20 thanks to a kill from Palkovicova. That's as close TRU would come however as Fraser Valley held on to take the set despite the visitors fighting off a pair of set points.
  • Fraser Valley managed to eke out an incredibly close second set. The teams traded points all the way until an Olfert kill knotted the match up at 20-20. From there a pair of back-to-back blocks from the Cascades allowed them to take a firm grasp of the game at 23-20. Palkovicova added a pair of kills late, but it wasn't enough as Fraser Valley took the set 25-22.
  • The third set was one of runs with TRU coming out on top. After a strong serving run from rookie Myah Cressy saw TRU jump out to an early 4-0 edge, UFV responded by taking 10 of the next 11 points to lead 10-5. An Addison Witkowski ace tied things back up at 11-11, and from there the teams traded points all the way to 21-21 where TRU took over. A Cressy solo block combined with back-to-back aces from Palkovicova allowed TRU to pull out the set victory 25-22.
  • TRU refused to go away in the fourth set and came close to forcing a fifth and final frame. Down by four at 20-16, TRU rattled off three-straight points to get within one. Yet another kill from Olfert tied the game at 22-22 but from there the Cascades were able to take both the set and the match with a 25-22 victory.
NOTABLE
  • The game was the eighth this season that TRU has played against a team ranked in the top six in the nation.
  • Olfert is third in the conference with 3.49 kills-per-set.
QUOTABLE - Head coach, Chad Grimm
  • Overall I was happy with the match, we got off to a little bit of a rough start but the girls managed to turn it around from about the middle point of the first set. I thought after that we played pretty solid volleyball.
  • We pushed every set and were much better out of system setting and giving our attackers a chance tonight. We were better from the service line with a little more pressure which came with some errors but that's the risk we have to take.
  • We didn't overthink things, we knew the gameplan and stuck with it which allowed us to compete and not get stuck thinking about things.
  • Obviously it would have been nice to have a different result but the girls showed real compete tonight.
     
    UP NEXT
  • TRU will head out on the road again next weekend when they face the Brandon Bobcats in Brandon.
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