By Larry Read

TRU Sports Information Officer

KAMLOOPS, BC—With their playoff hopes hanging in the balance, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's volleyball team opened up a four match Canada West home stand with a loss

The WolfPack  dropped the opening set, rallied to win the next two but then fell in five sets to the  visiting University of Saskatchewan Huskies 3-2 on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre. The match was played Friday (Jan 19).

The match was the fifth straight five set decision in a row for the Huskies.

The scores were 28-26,16-25,19-25,25-20, 16-14.   Saskatchewan moves to 9-8 while TRU falls to 6-11.

This was the second straight five set loss for the WolfPack and their seventh of the season.

 SYNOPSIS

The WolfPack jumped out to an early 4-0 lead causing Saskatchewan head coach Mark Dodds to call a time out. The Huskies responded by scoring three straight and later tied the first set at 11 and they reached the technical time out leading 16-14. Saskatchewan won the first set thanks to  six kills from Emily Koshinksy (2^nd year, outside hitter, Jansen, SK).

The second set saw TRU come out inspired and led 13-8 at one point and led 16-10 going into the technical time out.  The WolfPack won the second set by nine led by five kills from Rachel Windhorst (4^th year, outside hitter, Surrey, BC).

That set spurred on Thompson Rivers as they jumped out to a five point lead and wound up leading by eight (16-8) at the time out and took the second set 25-19.  Windhorst added another six kills in that frame, giving her 15 on the night at that point.  Setter Anastasiya Muzyka  (1^st year, Poltawa, Ukraine) had three service aces in that set.   The Huskies were the victims of their own errors heading into the fourth set, accumulating 19 attack errors to TRU's nine.

The fourth saw Saskatchewan battle back from a deficit to tie things up and take their first lead at 8-7. The Huskies extended their lead to as much as six (22-16).  Saskatchewan entered the tech time out up by three (16-13) and wound up winning by five (25-20).

In the race-to-15- final set,  The Huskies rallied from a 1-0 deficit and took a 4-2 lead before TRU tied it at 4. The teams fought each other point for point until TRU entered the break leading 8-7.  Saskatchewan pulled it out winning the final two points of the match.

They were led by Koshinsky with 18 kills.  TRU's main offensive weapon was Windhorst with 20.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: 

click here

KEY STATS:

Scores by set:

TRU                           26   25   25   20    16   --3

Saskatchewan         28   16   19   25    14   --2

TRU:

Rachel Windhorst  20 kills in 44 chances, 3 assists, 13 digs, 1 block assist

Yevgeniya Nyukhalova (1^st year, outside hitter, Severodontsk, Ukraine) 12 kills in 33 swings, 12 digs, 1 solo block,

Kendra Finch (3^rd year outside hitter, North Van, BC) 20 digs, 5 kills in 26 opportunities, 2 service aces

Mikayla Funk (2^nd year, outside hitter, South Surrey, BC) 7 kills in 21 chances, 15 digs, 6 service aces 2 block assists

Anastatasiya Muzyka 37 assists, 3 service aces, 4 digs, 1 block assist

Katie Ludvig (1^st year, libero, Kamloops, BC) 5 digs, 2 assists

Saskatchewan:

Emily Koshinsky: 18 kills in 52 swings, 3 assists,4 digs

Taylor Annala:11 kills in 30 opportunities, 3 service aces, 11 digs, 3 assists

Regan Wiebe:12 kills in 42 chances, 3 service aces, 2 assists, 10 digs, 2 block assists

Mackenzie Pek:38 assists, 13 digs, 1 solo block.

Jenelle Sokoloski: 12 digs

RECORDS:

TRU:  6-11   SASKATCHEWAN:  9-8

QUOTES:

TRU head coach Chad Grimm:

On Match: " It was a tough one. We battled hard. There were runs on both teams where one would jump out a little bit when the other team had a lull. I thought we battled hard and that is the only thing I can expect from the team."

On who played well:  "Both teams struggled at times in service/reception. We struggled in the first set but got it back together in the second and third. In the fourth it went away a little bit. The fifth was back and forth. We had chances to win it at 14-12 but didn't get it done.

On subbing in Muzyka and Ludvig in the second set:" I thought we needed a change in tempo of our offense. Anna came in and did a good job coming in and running some stuff, running some tempo and getting some other people involved. Obviously they saw a lot of Abby (Spratt) on tape. I thought she came in and did a good job Hali (Drezet, 2^nd year, libero, Prince George, BC) was struggling a bit on reception.  Katie came in and did a good job stabilizing things and was solid."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  click here

Saskatchewan coach Mark Dodds (3^rd year,):

On another five set match: "That's five in a row for us for five setters. Its fun and exciting. I thought both teams took turns passing and serving poorly. End of the fourth set and the fifth set we started to serve well and put them in trouble. Then we executed our block and defense which we weren't doing earlier in the evening."

On the play of Emily Koshinsky: "She is fun to watch. She is only in her second year and is really coming on and developing. She is getting stronger and stronger."

On moving to 9-8 on the year: "Go take a look at the standings. It is a log jam in there. This was a big win. Tomorrows will even be bigger. Look forward to coming back and battling again."

COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW:  click here

UP NEXT:

The WolfPack and Huskies will do battle again tomorrow night (Sat Jan 20) on the Warner Rentals Court.  Game time is 5 pm and will be shown on a pay per view basis on www.canadawesttv.com. 

TRU's four match home stand will continue next weekend (Jan 26-27) when the University of Calgary Dinos pay a visit to the Tournament Capital Centre.