KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack women’s volleyball team got their 2023-24 home slate started in style Friday night, earning a 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-22) victory over the Calgary Dinos infront of a sellout crowd.
“I think we did a lot of things pretty well, I think defensively we were good and a lot of the long rallies went our way so that was nice to see,” said WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm. “I don’t think we were super awesome offensively in the final two sets, but we served well and made it hard on them to score and in the end that was the difference.”
TRU took all three sets in front of nearly 1300 WolfPack fans to earn their first victory of the season.
Ema Palkovicova led all players with 12 kills on 24 swings. The second-year outside from Bratislava also fired in a game-high four service aces.
“She made some shots early, was using their hands and going with tip and roll shots, she wasn’t just trying to overpower the block all the time,” said Grimm on Palkovicova’s play. “I thought she did a good job of varying her shots a little bit, keeping the defence off and when she does that, she is hard to handle.”
Sammi Boag was the top hitter for the Dinos with eight kills on just nine swings to finish with a ridiculous .889 hitting percentage. Sophie reed and Alice Nikolaychuk both added five kills for the visitors who fall to 0-3 on the season with the loss.
An efficient offensive effort powered TRU to victory in the first set. The team hit .353 led by nine kills from Palkovicova. The ‘Pack jumped out to an early 10-5 lead and never looked back en route to the 25-18 victory. Daisy Olsen paced Calgary in the first set with three kills.
Six service aces for TRU proved to be the difference in the second set. Neither team hit efficiently but aces from Palkovicova (3), Olfert (1), Faith Christensen (1) and Keira Gent (1) allowed the ‘Pack to pull out a 25-18 set win. A close 21-18 set was put away with four-straight points for TRU and a pair of aces from Palkovicova.
The Dinos had their best set of the night in the third. Five kills from Boag kept the visitors in it before TRU was able to pull away, scoring the final two points of the set off of Calgary errors to take the win.
These two teams will be back in action tomorrow inside the TCC with first serve scheduled for 3:00 p.m.