Kamloops – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack men’s volleyball team earned their third momentous road victory of the season with a hard-fought 3-1 (25-15, 25-20, 25-27, 34-32) win over the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver Saturday night.
The win over UBC sends TRU to a record of 4-4 on the year and joins their previous victories on the road over the reigning CW champion Alberta Golden Bears and the No. 5 nationally ranked Saskatchewan Huskies.
“We had a solid start tonight and played with lots of control and confidence,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. “This was a huge win for us, picking up another split on the road.”
TRU had their best blocking performance of the season with a 12.5 team blocks. Middle Corbin Ockerman played a big part in that with two solo blocks and six block assists for a career-high blocking effort.
Sam Flowerday paced TRU with 19 kills and eight digs, while Rylan Ibbetson had an all-around performance with seven kills, nine digs, three blocks and three aces. Dylan VanSpankeren was outstanding defensively for TRU with a season-best 17 digs in a performance that Hennelly is dubbing the best libero performance in WolfPack men’s volleyball history.
Reeve Gingera was electric for UBC with 25 kills and 13 digs, both career-highs. Nick Taub also had his biggest performance in his Thunderbirds career with nine kills and seven digs off the bench.
The first set was all WolfPack as the visitors went up 12-5 on a Flowerday kill and didn’t look back from there. Ockerman recorded back-to-back service aces and kills from Flowerday and Ibbetson ended it with the score 25-15.
TRU once again jumped out to a large lead in the second set with a block from Ockerman followed by a kill from Ibbetson giving them a 20-11 lead. Gavin Margerison ended any worry of a UBC comeback with a kill to give TRU the 25-20 victory.
After UBC was able to extend the match with a 27-25 victory in the third set, the stage was set for a marathon fourth.
UBC played from the front for the majority of the frame and went up 24-19, but with Sam Elgert at the service line, the WolfPack staved off five straight set points to again force play past the 25-point barrier.
Neither team could create separation from each other, with both sides squandering multiple chances to take the set. The final tie was at 32-32, before TRU forced two UBC errors to take the set and match victory.
“Lots of credit to our guys for coming back in the fourth with Sam Elgert serving us back into the set when we were down 24-19,” said Hennelly. “Was a battle back-and-forth with some of the best volleyball of the year on both sides.”
TRU will now return home to get set for a pair of home weekends to wrap up their first semester schedule. First up are the Manitoba Bisons next Friday and Saturday inside the TCC.
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