Image Credit: Andrew Snucins

By Victor Kaisar

WolfPack Volleyball Recap

WolfPack women split; men sweep weekend series with Mount Royal

Feb 9, 2025 | 8:16 AM

KAMLOOPS — The TRU WolfPack women are unlikely to host a first round playoff series, after they fell just short of a weekend sweep of the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday (Feb. 8) at the Tournament Capital Centre.

The WolfPack dropped the second match of the weekend 3-2 (25-19, 14-25, 31-29, 20-25, 15-9) and fell to sixth place in Canada West with an 11-7 record. Mount Royal remains in fifth place with a 12-6 record heading into the final weekend of action.

Rida Erlalelitepe led the ‘Pack with a game-high 13 kills as well as seven digs and trio of serving aces. Maria Dancheva added 12 kills, five blocking assists and four digs, while Keira Gent had nine kills, nine digs and a pair of serving aces.

Hadley Schmidt also tallied 24 assists and a trio of aces for the WolfPack, who lost their first home game of the season Saturday.

“We tried a little bit of different lineup to give us a different look. The first set didn’t go great but I thought after that we started to get into a groove,” head Coach Chad Grimm said.

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: The NDP does it to us again

11h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Celebrating National Nursing Week

May 14, 2025

The Tattle of Hastings

THE TATTLE OF HASTINGS: B.C. Lions react to Snoop Dogg reveal

May 14, 2025

“Overall on both sides there were a lot of mistakes, I don’t think it was a clean game by other team so both sides are going to have to clean that up if they want to make any sort of push in the playoffs.”

While a top-six finish will give the WolfPack a bye for the first weekend of playoffs, only the top four teams get to host quarterfinal games. Even if TRU sweeps the 2-16 Brandon Bobcats to close out the season, they won’t be able to catch fourth-place UBC, who have a 14-4 record.

The WolfPack will still be able to leapfrog the Cougars into the fifth place as the Calgary-based team hosts third place Alberta (15-3) in their final weekend of the season. If for some season they drop to seventh or eighth in the standings, they will host a play-in round game at the TCC.

WolfPack men keep playoff dreams alive

The WolfPack men continued their late charge for a playoff berth, as they downed the Cougars by a score of 3-1 (15-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-23) inside the TCC. The 6-12 WolfPack will need to sweep the 8-10 Brandon Bobcats next weekend to qualify for playoffs.

They will also need to close the current 23-19 point lead that the Bobcats hold over them for the tie-breaker.

Rylan Ibbetson led the WolfPack with a team-high 14 kills along with nine digs. The brothers Sodaro had another good game as Mason tallied five kills, four block assists, two solo blocks and an ace, while Walker led the WolfPack with 30 assists and added nine digs and two serving aces of his own.

Graudating seniors’ Sam Flowerday and Matthew Hamilton also impressed. Flowerday recorded 12 kills, six digs, three block assists, a pair of service aces and a solo block, while Hamilton had a team-high 10 digs to go along with 10 kills and three block assists.

“A real slow start and that’s frustrating considering what is at stake but we showed composure to come back in the second set and I thought we were very stable from that point on,” Head Coach Pat Hennelly said.

“I’m happy with the way we’ve played in the second semester and we still have a shot here. Considering how bad our first half was, the fact that we still have something to play for next weekend is great.”

Those games against the Bobcats are scheduled for Feb. 14 and 15 at the TCC. Friday’s action will begin with the women’s game at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men’s game at 7:15 p.m.