KAMLOOPS – After the dust had settled on what was a tight back-and-forth battle the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team found themselves on the wrong side of a tight 3-1 (26-24, 17-25, 26-24, 25-16) defeat at the hands of the Fraser Valley Cascades.
There wasn’t much to split the teams on the night, with one of the main differences coming from the service line where the Cascades won the battle with 10 aces to the WolfPack’s four.
Seray Altay was the WolfPack’s most effective attacker on the night, finishing with 10 kills on her 23 swings while also recording five digs and a solo block. Brooklyn Olfert added seven kills and Kate Lamothe four on just seven swings. Anastasiia Muzyka led the way for an impactful WolfPack defence, finishing the night with four blocks.
Amanda Matsui had 13 kills for the Cascades but Mo Likness stole the show with 11 kills on her 15 swings and also adding four service aces.
The WolfPack dominated much of the first set but were unable to pull out the victory.
The visitors jumped out to the early 7-2 lead thanks in large part to outstanding defence early. TRU continued to lead for a majority of the set and a kill from Olfert sent the teams into the technical timeout with the WolfPack leading 16-12. A block from Muzyka and McNaught looked to send the WolfPack on their way to victory with a 21-16 before UFV battled back. The Cascades won eight of the next ten points to take their first lead of the set at 24-23 before eventually pulling out the 26-24 victory.
TRU made sure the same story didn’t unfold in the second set. The WolfPack hit .364% as a team in the frame while holding the Cascades to just .040% and compiled three blocks in the set en route to the easy 25-17 victory.
A third set that could not have been closer went the way of Fraser Valley.
Neither team held more than a two point lead throughout the entire frame but Fraser Valley found some wiggle room late. With the two teams tied at 20 the Cascades won two points in a row. TRU fought off a pair of set points at 24-22 thanks to a kill from Hayley McNaught and an attack error from UFV but from there the Cascades scored a pair of points in a row to take it 26-24.
From there all the wind appeared to come out of the WolfPack’s sails as the Cascades cruised to a fourth and deciding set victory by a score of 25-16.
These teams will wrap up their season series against each other tomorrow in Abbotsford with a scheduled start time of 3 p.m. That action can be watched live on canadawest.tv.
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