SASKATOON, SK – It will be a split weekend in Saskatoon for a Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team that fell 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-18) to the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday.
“I thought we played pretty well in the first set and the second was also a battle, we just couldn’t find our rhythm,” said WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm. “It was one of those games where we just couldn’t find it, not necessarily because we were playing poorly it was just a little bit off.”
The start of the first set was a continuation of Friday’s game that TRU won 3-2 with the teams going point-for-point. TRU earned a 19-16 lead thanks to a kill from Palkovicova before the Huskies ripped three-straight points to tie the match. Yet another Palkovicova kill gave TRU a lead at 23-21 but the Huskies scored five of the final six points to take the match.
The Huskies found themselves in the lead for the extent of the second, coming to match point (24-18) with an immense block by Julia Howell Bourner. TRU put up a fight with Christensen at the line serving, but the Huskies would go ahead and take the set 25-20 over the WolfPack with a kill from Abby Klein.
After two close sets the Huskies were able to run away in the third to take the set and match victory.
“Saskatchewan played well, they passed the ball much better and put pressure on our block and defence and when we did get them out of system our blocking needed to be a bit better,” said Grimm.
The loss moves the WolfPack’s record to 2-4 on the season as they are set to head into the bye week.
“At the end of the day we are coming home with the split so not the worst thing in the world, but it would have been nice to push tonight a little bit longer,” said Grimm.
The ‘Pack will be back in action in two weeks time when they travel to Vancouver to face the UBC Thunderbirds.