KAMLOOPS – One night after pushing a game all the way to the fifth and final set, the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team was unable to bring that same level of intensity to the court in a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-17) defeat at the hands of the Fraser Valley Cascades.
The Cascades led nearly every set wire-to-wire, out-hitting the ‘Pack by a tally of .303% – .062%. A physical UFV team took advantage of a young WolfPack squad missing some key players due to COVID-19 protocols to rack up 10 blocks to TRU’s 1.
For the second night in a row Brooklyn Olfert led the WolfPack with nine kills. Rookie Kate Lamothe had a career-high six kills on just nine attacks and Katie Ludvig racked up 10 digs.
Amanda Matsui paced the Cascades once again. The fourth year from Port Coquitlam had 21 kills on 31 attacks to finish the night with a hitting percentage of .581 per cent. Cailin Bitter did an excellent job distributing the ball to record 31 assists.
Fraser Valley scored the first four points of the night before the WolfPack were able to respond in the first. The host WolfPack kept pace with the Cascades to 16-12 at the technical timeout before Fraser Valley exploded down the stretch. An ace from Bitter finished off a set that saw Matsui record eight kills for the 25-17 set victory.
The second set followed much the same script. A 16-12 Fraser Valley advantage at the technical was blown wide open with an 8-4 Cascades run to make it 24-16. Lamothe had three kills in the set, but it was a case of too little too late as Fraser Valley took the second frame 25-18.
Thompson Rivers grabbed their first lead of the night early in the third set but the Cascades immediately responded with a 7-0 run keyed by a pair of aces from Mo Likness to take a 7-2 edge. The ‘Pack fought hard down the stretch and cut the lead to four at 14-10, but Fraser Valley proved to be too much on the night and ran away with the third set 25-17.
Next up for the WolfPack is a trip to Kelowna to face the UBC Okanagan Heat January 28-29. The Cascades meanwhile, will return home for a bye weekend before they host the WolfPack in Abbotsford February 4-5.