KAMLOOPS – In what will be the final weekend of her university career, Abby Spratt continued to write her name throughout the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball record book.
Already tops in the program in assists, the product of Calgary recorded two service aces to move her past the prodigious Iuliia Pakhomenko Friday night with a WolfPack record 136 career aces.
“She has an incredible touch on the ball, she doesn’t hit it necessarily hard but it’s the way that she connects with it, it floats and moves,” said WolfPack head coach Behlul Yavasgel of Spratt’s serving. “I’m a pretty good passer and in practice it gets me too. It’s a very tough serve and it works for her.”
Despite the record setting night, TRU was unable to overcome a dominant performance from the visiting UBC Thunderbirds in a 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 25-22) loss inside the TCC.
“They served better than us at certain points of the game,” said Yavasgel. “We couldn’t side-out and that has been a problem for us over the last few weeks.”
Cara Kovacs powered the T-Birds attack with ten kills on 16 attempts while also providing four block assists in the game. Middle Jayde Robertsen hit .700 per cent on the night with eight kills and three blocks.
For the ‘Pack Erin Mutch powered down seven kills and an ace, rookie Addison Witkowski added five kills of her own while Spratt finished with 13 assists and the aforementioned pair of aces.
The Thunderbirds dominated the first set. UBC held TRU to just four kills in the frame. Kovacs, Robertson and Vermette all tallied three kills as the Thunderbirds jumped out to an early 14-7 lead and never looked back en route to the 25-16 set victory.
TRU rebounded in the second set. After the teams traded points all the way to 22-22. A Robertson kill combined with a ‘Pack error gave UBC a pair of set points 24-22 but back-to-back kills from graduating members of TRU Siobhan Toal and Hayley McNaught kept the home team alive. The comeback was short lived however as Brynn Pasin and Robertson put the set away for UBC. Toal and Olfert each had a pair of kills in the frame to lead TRU while Robertson and Kovacs answered with four each for the T-Birds.
The WolfPack came out swinging in the third set. With UBC leading 10-8 the ‘Pack embarked on a 10-1 run during which Mutch tallied three kills and a service ace to send TRU up 18-11. UBC found an answer for that run and then some however. Two kills from Cossarini and some costly WolfPack errors allowed UBC to tally ten-straight points and take the lead back at 21-18. TRU was unable to knot things back up the rest of the way and a kill from Pasin ended both the game and the match.
“It’s a good sign that our team knows that when you serve tough, this game becomes easier,” said Yavasgel on the WolfPack’s rally. “Even though it’s a team sport, the one thing you can do individually is serving and I think moving to the next game that’s where our focus is going to be.”