Gent, Olfert earn Canada West honours

KAMLOOPS – A pair of outstanding members of the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team have earned recognition from the Canada West conference after helping lead the ‘Pack back to the postseason in 2023-24.
 
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Third-year outside hitter Brooklyn Olfert was named a Canada West Second Team All-Star while Calgary product Keira Gent earned a spot on the CW All-Rookie Team.
 
Originally from Winnipeg, Olfert is making the second appearance of her TRU career on a Canada West All-Star Team as she was also named to the All-Rookie Team in 2021-22. Finishing second in kills (318) and third in kills-per-set (3.57) in the conference, Olfert was one of the most dominant offensive players in the nation. An explosive finisher, Olfert tallied three of the top five high-kill games in the conference including breaking the 23-kill mark on three separate occasions.
 
“Brook came in and didn’t have a super great start,” said WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm. “Then she started to have weekends where she’d have one good and one not so good performance and then as the year progressed she started to put together back-to-back-to-back standout performances, she just started to manage the game better and found her rhythm from the service line. She’s a good athlete, has always been a strong defender and is also a strong blocker for her size and then she found her rhythm from the service line – so it was great to see her progression throughout the year and to end up third in the conference after a little bit of a slow start is pretty impressive.”
 
Olfert becomes the just the second, Second Team All-Star in program history and is the second player for TRU – after the legendary Iuliia Pakhomenko – to earn multiple Canada West All-Star nods.
 
A rookie from Calgary, Keira Gent quickly found herself in an impact role for TRU in her first year at the university level. The outside hitter suited up in all 24 matches this season for the ‘Pack and played the fourth-most sets on the team with 83. Gent tallied 165 kills and 204 points on the season both marks that were third-best among rookies in the conference.
 
“Like any rookie you kind of think you know the player you have coming in but you don’t really know until they get thrown onto the court,” said Grimm. “Keira’s mentality allowed her to be fairly stable, she doesn’t get too high or too low and just goes out and does her job. Early on I thought she did a great job with passing the ball and keeping herself on the court with her reception game and then as the season went on her offensive game started to develop – she has a high contact point and that keeps her out of trouble. I’ve just been really impressed with her stability and her ability to keep herself on the court.”
 
Gent is the sixth member of the ‘Pack to earn a spot on the Canada West All-Rookie team.
 
This marks the fourth time in program history that the ‘Pack have had multiple players honoured in a season by Canada West, with the most recent coming in 2019-20.

TRU finished 10-14 in the regular season and made a return to the CW playoffs for the first time since 2019-20.