KAMLOOPS – For the first time in four games the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men’s volleyball team found themselves on the losing side of the scoreline after the visiting Trinity Western Spartans picked up a 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-12) victory.
The WolfPack kept things close in the first set, but the perennial powerhouse Spartans proved to be too much on the night as the visitors hit .507 per cent in the match.
After racking up four straight wins over the Fraser Valley Cascades, the WolfPack struggled in the latter stages of the contest in what was their fifth game in eight days.
“I think mentally we were a little off because we didn’t really follow what we wanted to do at the start of the game and that’s tough when you’re playing a team this good,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. “We aren’t going to use fatigue as an excuse. We were playing a very good team and we let the energy level stay low and let them cruise when they struggled a little bit.”
Veteran Anton Napolitano led the WolfPack attack with seven kills in 13 swings while also leading the team in assists with 12 and digs with five. Sam Flowerday added six kills but the WolfPack struggled to get much going offensively against a Spartan team that leads the West Division with a perfect 11-0 record.
Brodie Hofer racked up 13 kills on his 21 swings for TWU while Jackson Howe added nine and Mathias Elser, Jesse Elser and Jordan Schnitzer all had seven. The Elser duo and Howe also added two service aces each in the match.
The first set was the closest of the night with the WolfPack pushing the Spartans to the limit. Flowerday had a pair of kills and the Spartans had their least efficient mark of the night by hitting .400 per cent. A kill from WolfPack rookie Riley Brinnen knotted the set up at 18-18 before the Spartans captured six of the next seven points to take a 24-19 lead. The WolfPack were able to fight off three set points and a solo block from Samuel Elgert put the pressure on TWU with the lead down to just two, before the Spartans were able to take the set.
TWU started to take control of the match in the second. The visitors finished on 18 of the 24 attacks they attempted en route to running away with the 25-15 set victory. Napolitano and Flowerday had three kills apiece in the frame to lead the ‘Pack.
The Spartans wrapped up the victory by jumping out to a 15-6 lead that they would hold onto in taking the frame 25-12.
With the win TWU moves to 11-0 on the season while the WolfPack drop to 5-8. Thompson Rivers continues to hold a firm grip on a wildcard into the Canada West playoffs by holding onto fourth in the West Division.
These teams will be back in action inside the TCC tomorrow afternoon with a scheduled start time of 2:00 p.m.
“We need to have a defensive intensity tomorrow, we let a lot of balls hit us early that I think we would have dug in other matches this year,” said Hennelly on what his team can do better tomorrow. “That’s what we have to do, we are smaller than they are so we need to see that effort. They are a team that’s very disciplined and stable and if you don’t do things right it makes for a long night for your attackers.”
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