WolfPack Women’s Volleyball Enter Xmas Break With Defeat

Nov 30, 2015 | 9:45 AM

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women’s volleyball team came up with a better effort but it wasn’t good enough to unseat one of the top teams in Canada.
The WolfPack went into Kelowna, BC and wound up falling to the host University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat 3-1. The scores on Saturday (Nov 28) at the gym known as the “Furnace” were 25-16, 25-17, 23-25,25-19.

Thompson Rivers enters the Canada West Christmas break with a record of 5-7. UBCO is 11-1.

“Generally we competed better than we did on Thursday,” said WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm “ Technically we continued to make mistakes but we defended and competed much better”.

The WolfPack rallied to win the third set.

Grimm said that was a character building experience for his crew. “We could have easily been down after losing the first two sets to one of the best teams in the league. We pushed UBCO in that third set which was good to see.”

TRU was led by Iuliia Pakhomenko (4th year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) with 13 kills, three assists and nine digs.

Brianne Rauch (4th year, outside hitter, Kimberley, BC) had 13 kills and got praise from Grimm.
“She was fantastic moving from her natural right side to the left,” stated the TRU coach. “She is an awesome team player and does whatever we ask of her. She was brilliant tonight.”

Alyssa Wolf (5th year, libero, South Surrey, BC) had 14 digs. Katie Woo (5th year, setter, Surrey, BC) had 34 assists and seven digs.

For UBCO: they were led by Brianna Beamish with 14 kills. Emily Oxland had 33 assists and nine digs while Kailin Jones added 15 digs.

The WolfPack will take December off to train. They return to Canada West play on Friday, January 8, 2016 when they visit Calgary, Alberta and the Mount Royal University Cougars.
Their next home match at the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops comes up Friday, January 15th when they entertain the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Match time is 6 pm.