Larry Read, Thompson Rivers University Sports Information Officer
The Canada West men's volleyball season isn't half over yet but one thing is for sure, Tim Dobbert of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack is hoping to leave his mark before its all said and done.
The fifth year outside hitter from Aichelberg, Germany set a Canada West season record on Friday (Nov 23) powering the WolfPack to their sixth straight victory—a four set win over the visiting MacEwan Griffins.
Dobbert had 27kills in TRU's 18-25,25-23,25-22, 25-13 over the Griffins. The previous season record was held by Tyler Schmidt of Mount Royal who had 24 against Manitoba on October 19, 2018
The Wolfpack are now 6 and 1 on the year. MacEwan falls to 2-7.
MacEwan's main offensive man was Jordan Peters with 14 kills.
The Griffins came out strong in the first set and led 16-10 going into the first tech time out. TRU rallied thanks in part to a couple of big kills off the arm of Tim Dobbert. They cut the margin to two (17-13). MacEwan got four kills from both Jordan Peters and Kai Hesthammer as they rolled to a 25-18 victory.
In the second set, TRU jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and had a four point advantage getting to the 16 point tech time out first. TRU paced by Dobbert who had 19 kills after two sets took set two 25-23.
The third set opened with MacEwan taking a 5-0 lead, three of them came on service errors by Thompson Rivers. After coach Pat Hennelly called a time out, the Pack cut the deficit to one (8-7). They took the lead at 9-8 and went up by three (11-9). The Griffins gutted out a comeback and things were deadlocked at 15 before the Pack got the 16th point to send the set to a break. Thompson Rivers had a four point lead looking for the set point, but the gritty Griffins didn't go away, cutting the deficit to two (24-22) forcing Hennelly into another time out. They returned to the field and none other than Dobbert delivering the final blow. His 24 kills after three sets was the second highest in Canada West through three sets this year. At this point, TRU had 7 blocks compared to MacEwan's 5.
Like the previous sets, the fourth saw MacEwan open up with a lead. They were up 4-1 before Thompson Rivers tied things up at 7. With the Pack leading 12-9, Griffins bench boss Brad Poplawski called a time out, it didn't derail TRU as they had a 16-10 advantage going into the break. The WolfPack were too strong and rolled to their most convincing set victory (25-13).
The WolfPack and Griffins will close out the weekend set on Saturday (Nov 24). They have a 7:45 pm PDT start time on the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Centre. The match is delayed an hour because all four of the TRU 'court sport' teams are at home this weekend.
The basketball 'Pack are hosting the UBCO Heat as well. Their Friday games were actually played at 11 am(women) and 12:45 pm (men). The "TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match" was: Charlie Bringloe.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
THEY SAID IT (Post Matc Quotes):
TRU head coach Pat Hennelly:
On the match: " It is a little disappointing. I thought we had a good game plan coming in. GMAC was definitely executing at a higher level than us and taking advantage of some things. That is frustrating and we have to address that as a team on how we start and how we execute our game plan. We have to be sharper if we want to continue to win."
On Tim Dobbert's performance:" Without Tim I don't know what happens here. Tim gets us out of trouble a lot of times. We almost take it for granted that Tim is going to have a great game. That is how good Tim is right now. He is consistent and regular. When we need a serve, he provides a serve. When we need a block he comes up with a block. He is quite a good a defender as well. You take it for granted some times."
Comparing Dobbert to WolfPack greats Robin Schoebel, Gord Perrin, Brad Gunter and Kevin Tillie: "Absolutely he is in that class. He is an elite athlete. He is an international volleyball player. Tim Dobbert is up with those guys easily."
Coaches Video Post Game Interview: click here
MacEwan assistant coach Eirik Thomassen:
On match: "Several sets we had the start we wanted which was great. We couldn't sustain it. We need to find away to do better against number 15-Dobbert. He showed today that he is unstoppable. We have find an answer to that. It is not good enough for us to let him get away with that many kills. That is something we have to take away today."
Coaches Video Post Game Interview: click here