By Larry Read
Sports Information Officer-Thompson Rivers University
The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's volleyball saw their two match winning streak snapped as they opened up their final home series before Christmas.
The WolfPack fell in three straight sets to the visiting MacEwan University Griffins on Friday night on the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Centre.
The scores were 25-23,25-22, 25-23.
MacEwan was led by McKenna Stevenson with 10 kills in 24 chances. Olga Savenchuk was the top offensive threat for TRU with 10 kills.
TRU falls to 3-6. MacEwan is 5-4.
The Griffins were first to get to the 16 point technical time out in the first set leading by six (16-10). But the Pack slugged it out and evened things up at 18 thanks to the serving of Abby Spratt and some timely kills causing MacEwan to call a time out to try and regroup.
A kill by Olga Savenchuk gave the WolfPack their first lead at 19-18. The teams exchanged points, tied at 21 after a Spratt service ace. MacEwan went onto win the first set 25-23.
The WolfPack mounted a comeback in the second set. After being down 13-11, TRU rattled off four straight points to lead 16-13. Coming out of the tech time out, the Griffins went on a 3-0 run to deadlock things at 16 before TRU stopped the bleeding by scoring three straight of their own to move ahead 19-16. The plucky MacEwan crew scored four in a row to lead 20-19 causing TRU head coach Chad Grimm to call a time out. The battle raged on with The Griffins prevailing 25-22 to take a 2-0 lead.
The third set was very similar to the first two. TRU was up, then McEwan…who took the third set 25-23 to take the match in three sets.
The teams will battle it out again on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre starting at 6 pm. It's the conclusion of a four match home stand for the WolfPack. The match is delayed an hour because all four of TRU's 'court sports' are at home this weekend. The basketball Pack are entertaining the UBCO Heat. Those games are going at 1 pm and 2:45 pm.
Both basketball and volleyball matches are webcast on www.Canadawesttv.
The "TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match" was Hali Drezet (3rd year, libero, Prince George, BC) she had 12 digs in the match.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
THEY SAID IT (post match quotes):
TRU head coach Chad Grimm:
On Loss:"We couldn't pass. That was the story in a nutshell. I wish there was more than that. When your serve receive was as poor as it was tonight it is tough to win games. It put our attackers in tough situations. It put our setters in bad situations. When you pass at that level you aren't going to win many games."
COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW: click here
MacEwan coach Ken Briggs (17th season):
On match: "I was happy. We bent but didn't break a couple of times. Our middles got things going for us. That allowed us to expand a bit. I thought we did a really good job on their outsides. We did that from the start and that sort of gets in their head and they make a few errors. We were very resilient today."
COACHES POST GAME VIDEO INTERVIEW: click here