T-Birds top Wolfpack to close out regular season

KAMLOOPS – Taking to the court for the final time in 2021-22, the Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team was unable to make it two upset victories in a row as they were dealt a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-21) loss by the UBC Thunderbirds.

The result brings an end to the WolfPack’s season as the team will miss out on the Canada West playoffs with a record of 2-14. Despite the loss it was a strong weekend for the WolfPack who upset the Thunderbirds last night and said farewell to a pair of stalwart graduating players.

“The first positive is that we actually got to play this year,” said WolfPack head coach on his thoughts on the season as a whole. “And then for a group where we had five first years on the floor for big chunks of games, I thought we improved and are starting to learn how to play the right way. The effort level was good, it’s hard sometimes to drag yourself to the gym when your record isn’t the best, but I think the girls took advantage of the opportunities that they and that will be great for them moving forward.”

With the win UBC clinches second in the West Division with a record of 9-7. The Thunderbirds will now head to Edmonton next weekend where they will face the host Alberta Pandas, as well as the third-best team from the East Division and the Regina Cougars with the top two teams from that pool advancing to the next round.

UBC hit .282 per cent in the match as a team and tallied a staggering 12 aces to help lead them to victory. Danielle Price had a trio of aces while Elise Petit, Kayla Oxland and Cara Kovacs all had two.

Brooklyn Olfert had a team-high eight kills for the ‘Pack while Siobhan Toal and Hayley McNaught both finished with five apiece. Graduating libero Katie Ludvig recorded seven digs, with several diving efforts to keep the ‘Pack alive in rallies.

Kovacs was dominant for the Thunderbirds, going 12-21 to lead UBC. Petit was good for eight kills with Claire Cossarini adding six.

The first set was all Thunderbirds.

UBC hit .438 per cent as a team and the visitors were able to take a raucous home crowd out of the equation early with a 16-10 lead at the technical timeout. A Trinity Solecki run of serves closed out the set with Kovacs getting the last kill to give the visitors the 11-point set victory.

A massive UBC run at the midway point of the second set moved what was a close scoreline to an eight-point Thunderbirds lead. With UBC leading 13-12 Erika Vermette stepped up to the service line and a Vermette ace, a pair of Kovacs kills and a pair of blocks from Cossarini later the Thunderbirds held a 20-12 lead they wouldn’t surrender en route to the 25-20 set victory.

TRU had their best set of the night in the third.

Again it was UBC jumping out to a commanding lead early at 19-13 but the WolfPack battled all the way back to 23-20 thanks in large part to a trio of kills and some outstanding serves from McNaught. The comeback wasn’t meant to be however as Price ended the night with a service to send the Thunderbirds to victory.