KAMLOOPS – For the second game in a row the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men’s volleyball team came up clutch when they needed to the most as they eked out a 3-2 (16-25, 26-24, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12) victory over the Calgary Dinos.
“Both teams had a lot of nerves, you saw it on the serving side early and then in the passing,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. “I’m going to give credit to Calgary this was a big crowd and a tough environment for them but that kind of worked against us early.”
Rylan Ibbetson led TRU with 15 kills in the match. The product of Kelowna added three service aces and a game-high nine digs in the contest.
“Rylan is just out there making plays, he’s unassuming but he does his job – the best way to put it is that he gets out there and makes things happen,” said Hennelly. “He had a couple serving runs, made a couple digs late and I couldn’t be more proud of Rylan, he didn’t have a huge volleyball background coming here and now he’s one of our key guys.”
Sam Flowerday added 14 kills while middle Corbin Ockerman was a force offensively with 12 kills on 16 attempts and a monstrous six service aces. Sam Elgert broke the 40 assist mark for the third-straight game to start the season.
Erik Godwin had a game-high 16 kills for Calgary to go along with five aces while German middle Louis Kunstmann racked up an impressive eight aces to go along with his nine kills.
Playing in front of over 1,300 pro-‘Pack fans, it was the Dinos who handled the pressure of the crowd better early.
Godwin had three kills and Kunstmann four aces in the opening set as the Dinos his .389 per cent as a team and held TRU to -.056 to run away with the 25-16 victory.
The visitors appeared well on their way to taking a convincing 2-0 lead with a 24-21 advantage in the second set before the WolfPack rallied. Sam Flowerday went on a great serving run and Ibbetson had three-straight kills as TRU scored the final five points of the frame to snare the victory.
After the teams traded sets in the third and fourth it all came down to the fifth.
TRU jumped out to an early 6-2 lead thanks in large part to a long serving run by Elgert. Calgary bounced by with a pair of kills by Tyler Funk but would never tie the match again as Flowerday put the game away with a massive kill on set point.
These two teams are back in action tomorrow afternoon inside the TCC with first serve scheduled for 4:45 p.m.
“We have to stabilize our serve and pass game for sure and I think Calgary will say the same thing,” said Hennelly on what his team can improve tomorrow. “I fully expect Calgary to come out and be better, and for us I know we can be better.
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