by Larry Read

TRU Sports Information Officer

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack are quickly becoming the 'queens' of the five setters. The WolfPack played their fourth fifth set match of the Canada West women's volleyball season on Friday night (Nov 24). TRU beat the University of Manitoba Bisons 3-2 on the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Center.

The scores were 25-19,16-25,25-20,30-32, 15-9.

 SYNOPSIS

The WolfPack started strong and had leads of as much as four points in the first set before winning it by six.  Manitoba ruled the roost in the second set and at one point, held a six point advantage going into the technical time out (16-10) and wound up winning by seven.

The third set was a see saw battle with the WolfPack jumping out to an early 5 point lead and not giving up. The fourth set saw the Bisons grab the first five points, prompting TRU head coach Chad Grimm to call a time out to break their rhythm. TRU cut the Manitoba deficit to one and wound up going into the technical time out up 16-15. That set was a marathon with the Bisons taking it 32-30.

The fifth set saw TRU quickly jump out to a 3-0 lead.

This was the WolfPack's fourth fifth set match of the year and second in as many matches.  Yevgeniya Nyukhalova was the main offensive threat for TRU with 30 kills.  Rachel Windhorst added 21.  Six members of the WolfPack had double digit digs.

Manitoba's Kearley Abbott had 22 kills in a losing cause.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: 

click here

KEY STATS:

Scores by Set:

TRU:               25  16  25  30  15  --3

Manitoba:        19  25  20  32   9   --2

TRU:

Yevgeniya Nyukhalova (1^st year, outside hitter, Severodontsk, Ukraine) 30 kills in 77 swings, 10 digs, 2 block assists

Rachel Windhorst (4^th year,outside hitter, Surrey, BC) : 21 kills in 63 chances, 3 service aces, 14 digs, 4 block assists

Abby Spratt (2^nd year, setter, Calgary, AB): 63 assists, 2 service aces, 13 digs, 4 block assists

Morgan Righelof (2^nd year, outside hitter, St. Albert, AB): 8 kills in 19 opportunities,12 digs

Kendra Finch (3^rd year outside hitter, North Van, BC): 4 kills in 28 chances, 4 service aces, 23 digs, 2 block assists

Hali Drezet (2^nd year, libero, Prince George, BC): 13 digs

Manitoba:

Kearley Abbott (2^nd year, right side, Winnipeg, MB): 22 kills in 47 chances, 16 digs,2 block assist

Josie Abbott (2^nd year, left side, Winnipeg, MB): 9 kills in 32 swings, 10 digs, 1 block assist

Brittany Habing (5^th year, setter, East. St. Paul, MB):45 assists, 2 service aces, 15 digs, 3 block assists

Cassie Bujan (4^th year, libero, Anola, MB): 29 digs

RECORDS:

TRU: 5-4    Manitoba:  4-5

QUOTES:

TRU head coach Chad Grimm:

On fourth fifth set matches so early in the season: "I think the more times you are in that situation the more times you learn from it. We got off to a good start in the fifth set after a letdown in the fourth. I was proud of the girls' response. Sometimes it's difficult. We were up 24-21 (in the fourth) and I thought we could close out the match. Manitoba made a nice push and we wound up not getting it done in extra points. Sometimes that is tough. I thought the girls did a good job of pushing through and now know they can do that. Once you have done something you can fall back on that experience and know you can succeed.

On 6 players with double digit digs:  "I think both these teams are among the top in Canada West in digs. I thought their libero did a great job. I thought Kendra did a really good job. I think our defense, when we are stable in our positioning and don't move pre contact, we can do a good job. I thought early we got caught moving a little bit out of position. As the match progressed we dialed it down a bit."

Not subbing in many players in the match (using only 9 players in the five sets): "I think the girls that were on the court earned that right in practice and in past games. Obviously if someone was struggling we would make a change. We had some ups and downs but everyone who was out there was managed to stabilize things. We made some small tactical changes but nothing major. Those girls did a good job of bouncing back for the most part."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  here

Manitoba coach Ken Bentley (31 st year):

On match: " I am disappointed we lost the match. We fought like crazy to win the fourth set. We got behind in the fifth and didn't play a very good set. Very uneven on our side and we weren't consistent. Credit to TRU. They did a good job. They read a lot of pipes and scored and we didn't do a good job of defending it. Generally, we didn't play a consistent match. We didn't serve very well. We were up and down. Poor misses at poor times. We need to be more disciplined.  That was likely the biggest disappointment for me because I thought we pride ourselves on discipline."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  here

UP NEXT:

The WolfPack and Manitoba will wrap up their weekend series tomorrow (Sat Nov 25) on the Warner Rentals Court.  Game time is 5 pm. Next weekend (Dec 1-2), Thompson Rivers will close out the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule with two matches in Edmonton, Alberta against the University of Alberta Pandas.

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

The other fifth set matches the WolfPack have been involved in this year: winning 3-2 over MacEwan on Oct 21^st, losing to Brandon 3-2 on Nov 3^rd. Both those matches were played on the Warner Rentals court. The other match was last Saturday in Winnipeg, where TRU won 3-2.