Larry Read

TRU Sports Information

KAMLOOPS, BC—The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's volleyball team had to go the distance to record a win on the opening night of the 2017-18 Canada West regular season.

Playing on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre on Friday (Oct 20), the 'Pack needed five sets to dispose of the MacEwan University Griffins.

The scores were 25-12,17-25,25-21,21-25,15-13

 SYNOPSIS

The WolfPack were led by Yevgeniya Nyukhalova (1^st year, outside hitter, Severodontsk, Ukraine) with 20 kills in 48 chances   Rachel Windhorst (4^th year, outside hitter, Surrey, BC) had 14 kills in 42 chances while Anastasiya Muzyka (1^st year, setter, Potawa, Ukraine) had 46 assists, two service aces and eight digs.

MacEwan was led by Cassidy Kinsella (5^th year, outside hitter, Leduc, AB) with 19 kills in 51 swings.  Claire McLoughlin ( 5^th year, setter, Campbell River, BC) had 34 assists.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: 

here

KEY STATS:

TRU

Yevgeniya Nyyukalova  20 kills in 48 chances, 3 service aces, 11 digs

Rachel Windhorst 14 kills in 42 opportunities, 12 digs, 1 service ace

Anastasiya Muzyka 46 assists, 2 service aces, 8 digs, 1 solo block, 1 block assists

Kendra Finch (3^rd year outside hitter, North Van, BC) 9 kills in 30 swings, 12 digs

MacEwan

Cassidy Kinsella 19 kills in 51 chances, 3 service aces, 10 digs 2 block assists

Haley Gilfillan (3^rd year, middle, Edmonton, AB)  8 kills in 17 chances, 3 service aces, 2 digs 5 block assists

Claire McLoughlin 34 assists, 12 digs, 2 solo blocks, 1 block assist

RECORDS:

TRU:  1-0  MacEwan 0-1

QUOTES:

TRU head coach Chad Grimm:

On Match: "They have had a good preseason. They are a solid team and they returned all their starters. I didn't expect the match to be an easy one. I knew after the first set they were going to make a pushback. They started to pass the ball really well and they defended strongly. The block defense was definitely advantage them tonight."

On what he liked about his team: " I liked that we stuck with it for the most part. Obviously, it is early. It is a new lineup. We have people in spots that they haven't been before. It is getting used to that and trying to find the flow."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  here

MacEwan head coach Ken Briggs:

On match: "We had to come in here and learn to play in this gym. It is very different playing in here. It is not an excuse. It was a tentative start by our team. We settled down. With our experience we can do that. We have been here before. We had this. It was only one set and we went from there."

Was this a character building five set match?  "We learned a lot of things especially in the fifth set. I wish we could have cut down on our mental errors because we pretty well gave it away. It was a really good match. I don't know if it is downhill this one way (pointing to the west side of the court). Anytime you were on that side you won. I wish we would have finished on that side. We would have won."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  here

UP NEXT:

The teams will go at it again tomorrow night (Oct 21) at the Tournament Capital Centre. Match time will be 5 pm. 

Tomorrow's match will be webcast on www.Canadawesttv beginning with the pregame show at 4:50 pm with Luke Kieper, Morgan Kolasa and Dylana Milobar.

 OF NOTE:   The "TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match" was: Windhorst.