KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack men’s volleyball team took a set but couldn’t pull off the upset in a 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 21-25, 25-21) loss to the Trinity Western Spartans inside the Tournament Capital Centre Saturday afternoon.
After falling in the first two sets, the WolfPack showed great fight to battle back by taking the third set and pushing the fourth set to the limit in what was their sixth game in the last nine days.
“Today our execution was bang on and the effort on defence was there,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. “I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys, that’s their sixth game in nine nights and they battled the top team in the country. It’s as proud of a group of WolfPack players as I’ve ever been for them to go out there tonight and play with that courage and they never backed down. We moved ahead as a program today so I’m absolutely proud of those guys.”
Sam Flowerday had a team-high nine kills on 16 swings for the ‘Pack with the Australian product also firing in three service aces. Samuel Elgert and Anton Napolitano had eight kills apiece with Elgert racking up 16 assists and Napolitano 15. Thundersky Walkingbear and Maxim Turgeon rounded out the scoring for the ‘Pack with six kills each. Turgeon, a first year middle, added a trio of block assists.
Brodie Hofer paced the Spartans with 17 kills on the night. Hofer hit .538 per cent in the game to help lead the Spartans to their 12th-straight victory.
The WolfPack kept pace with the Spartans and actually outhit the visitors .250 – .241 but the Spartans were able to pull out the set late. A massive Walkingbear block saw the WolfPack trail just 21-20 but from there TWU went on to claim the next four points to take the 25-20 victory.
TRU jumped out to an early 9-5 lead in the second set thanks in large part to back-to-back aces from Sam Flowerday. Trinity clawed their way back into the set however and a lengthy run that featured a pair of Hofer kills saw the visitors take a 16-14 lead at the technical timeout. Trinity dominated the remainder of the set and ran away with the 25-18 victory.
The WolfPack weren’t going away with a fight however and held off a late Spartans push to take the third set.
Turgeon got the set started with two kills in a row and Elgert racked up a pair of aces as TRU went out in front 17-8. TRU pushed that lead to 20-11 before Trinity Western battled back to make things interesting at 23-19. From there a kill each from Flowerday and Walkingbear allowed a WolfPack team that hit .500 per cent in the set to take the 25-21 victory.
“We have two first year middles out there against the top offence in the country so I was super proud of all the young guys that stepped on the court and kept their head up,” said Hennelly. “You don’t learn from losses where you hang your head and chase mistake. Every time Max comes on the court he’s been doing something good going back to our games in Fraser Valley. We’ve got a couple injuries so it’s absolutely crucial that young guys step up and they gained some valuable, hard-earned experience today.”
TRU nearly forced a fifth set but the Spartans rallied late to take the match. Trailing 19-15 the WolfPack went on a 6-2 run to tie the game up at 21-21 on an Elgert kill. The Spartans showed their mettle late and fended off the WolfPack surge to take the 25-21 set victory.
The game completes the WolfPack’s run of six games in nine days during which they went 4-2. TRU will have a bye next weekend before wrapping up their regular season slate at home on Feb. 25-26 for a pair of games against the UBC Thunderbirds inside the TRU Gym.