Image Credit: TRU WolfPack Athletics/Andrew Snucins

By Adam Donnelly

CANADA WEST WOMEN"S VOLLEYBALL

Thompson Rivers University women’s volleyball pumped for unlikely playoff appearance

Feb 22, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women’s volleyball team finished off a weekend sweep of the Mount Royal University Cougars at the TCC on Saturday night (Feb. 17) to wrap up the regular season. Despite that win, they needed some help if they hoped to make the Canada West playoffs.

That help came, as the 1-and-22 Regina Cougars beat the Winnipeg Wesmen, which allowed TRU to leapfrog Winnipeg into the final playoff spot in the conference.

“Total unexpectedness,” was the reaction Faith Christiansen describes. “We just had — not like written off our season, but with the way the cards lined up, we weren’t expecting to actually make it through. We kind of played MRU like it was our last. We found out Regina had taken a set, and that things were kind of flipping around and it was just pure excitement and total, ‘Oh my gosh. We can make it.’”

With that little bit of help from the last-place team in Canada West, the WolfPack have been given the opportunity to take on the first-place team in the country — the defending national champs, the 22-and-2 UBC Thunderbirds. Even with a daunting opponent ahead, third-year outside hitter Brooklyn Olfert can’t wait to hit the court.

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“We’re all excited,” Olfert says. ”We’ve never really made playoffs since I’ve been here, so it’s a new feeling. We’re all amped up to play against UBC.”

Like her teammates, rookie standout Keira Gent is looking forward to her first taste of playoff volleyball.

“It’s going to be exciting. It’ll be really loud in there, and that will be a feeling we’ve never felt before, as no one on this team has been to the playoffs,” Gent says. “It’s going to be a great feeling to even be there and we’re going to have to settle those nerves and play some volleyball.

Head Coach Chad Grimm played three years with the UBC Thunderbirds men’s volleyball team, so he’s quite aware of the environment he and his team will be walking into. With UBC ranked first in all of USports this season, the pressure is off the WolfPack, who are playing with house money at this point in the year..

“We’re going to go out there and battle,” Grimm tells CFJC Today. “It’s nice to go down there. Obviously, I spent a lot of time there, myself, so it’s always good to go back. And hey, we’ve had results before, also in the playoffs, when it wasn’t expected.”

The key for TRU, if they hope to knock off the top team in the nation, will be staying close and not letting UBC open up a wide lead.

“I think if we can get into this kind of transition battle with them and if we can be close at 20, I think they start to hear footsteps over there and the pressure starts to build,” Grimm suggests. “The expectation isn’t that we’re hanging around with them late in sets and late in matches.”

While it’s a tall task for this young WolfPack squad to expect to knock off the reigning national champs, this will be a huge opportunity for a team with only one graduating player to gain valuable experience in high-pressure matches on hostile ground.

“It’s awesome and we’re so excited for it,” Christiansen says. “A lot of us were saying that we weren’t ready for the season to be over yet, that we still have gas in the tank. We’re excited to empty the tank now and see what we can give it.”

The WolfPack play the Thunderbirds this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if necessary at the War Memorial Gymnasium at UBC.