By Larry Read
TRU Sports Information Officer
KAMLOOPS, BC: The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack know they are fighting for their playoff lives and they showed it on Friday (Jan 19). Pat Hennelly and company opened up a four match Canada West home stand with a straight set win over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
The scores were 25-23,25-22,25-21.
TRU snapped the Huskies five game winning streak as both teams jockey for post season berths.
Tim Dobbert led the way offensively for TRU with 20 kills in 27 opportunities.
SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack took the first set as they got eight kills out of Dobbert (4th year, outside hitter, Aichelberg, Germany). Anton Napolitano (2nd year, setter, Victoria, Australia) had 10 assists in that set. Dylan Mortenson (1st year, outside hitter, Swift Current, SK) had five kills to lead Saskatchewan.
Similar to the first set, TRU got out to a lead, but the Huskies battled back and took their first lead of the set at 8-7 and went up 9-8 before the Pack scored three in a row to regain the lead. With TRU a point away from the 16 point technical time out, Saskatchewan went on a run to score five in a row to lead 17-15. Dobbert notched two of the Pack's final three points as they won the second set 25-22. He had 16 kills on 22 opportunities at that point of the match. The Huskies committed five service errors in that second stanza.
The third set saw TRU jump to a 7-3 lead. The Huskies took a time out. But it didn't stop the WolfPack who enlarged their lead to seven going into the technical time out (16-9). The Huskies battled but couldn't erase that deficit as they saw their five match winning streak come to an end.
Saskatchewan was led by Mortenson with 10 kills.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
KEY STATS:
Scores by sets:
TRU 25 25 25 --3
Saskatchewan: 23 22 21 --0
Saskatchewan:
Dylan Mortenson: 10 kills in 19 opportunities, 2 digs, 1 assist
Colin Fraser: 7 kills in 26 chances, 3 digs, 2 solo blocks
CJ Gavlas: 19 assists, 7 digs, 3 kills in 6 chances
Daulton Simoski:4 kills in 8 chances, 3 service aces, 1 solo block, 3 block assists, 1 dig
TRU
Tim Dobbert: 20 kills in 27 chances, 2 service aces, 2 digs, 4 block assists
Josh Mullaney (3rd year, outside hitter, Calgary, AB): 7 kills in 17 swings, 1 service ace, 1 dig
Anton Napolitano: 26 assists, 5 digs,1 block assist, 3 kills in 8 attempts
Landon Currie: 8 digs, 2 assists
RECORDS:
SASKATCHEWAN: 7-10 TRU: 6-11
QUOTES:
TRU head coach Pat Hennelly:
On the match: " This is playoffs. If we don't make the post season this is playoffs. We needed to prepare for this like playoffs. We practiced a little harder than we would at this time of year. We know this is do or die. Saskatchewan is ahead of us in the standings. It is coming down to us, Saskatchewan UBCO and Manitoba for those last two spots. I give the guys credit for working themselves into meaningful games. They did not have a lot of them last year and the first semester is poor. We have given ourselves a chance to play meaningful games. This is how you grow as a team to be in these situations and battle. Win or lose, we battled and I am proud of the guys."
Coaches Video Post Game Interview: click here
Saskatchewan head coach Brian Gavlas (24 th season):
On streak coming to an end: " The first two sets were pretty tight. We didn't have an answer for their right side guy (dobbert). I thought our entire team played well considering the situation of not dealing with him."
Coaches Video Post Game Interview: click here
UP NEXT:
The WolfPack and the Huskies will conclude their weekend series tomorrow (Sat Jan 20) on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre. Match time is 6:45 pm PDT.
Next weekend (Jan 26-27) Thompson Rivers concludes its home stand with two matches against the University of Calgary Dinos. The Huskies will return home to entertain the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat.
All of the above matches will be shown on a pay-per-view basis on www.CanadaWesttv.com.
OF NOTE: The "TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match" was: Currie.