(Image Credit: University of Alberta Pandas)

By Victor Kaisar

Canada West Volleyball

WolfPack to play for Canada West bronze after straight-sets semi-final loss to Pandas

Mar 7, 2026 | 8:31 AM

EDMONTON — The Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack women’s volleyball team will play for a Canada West Bronze medal this afternoon.

The WolfPack lost 3-0 (20-25, 21-25, 21-25) to the top-seeded Alberta Pandas in a one-game semi-final Friday (March 6) at the Saville Centre in Edmonton.

Kamloopsian Hail Ward hit .368 per cent to finish the night with ten kills and a trio of blocks. Middle Maria Dancheva added seven kills on 15 attacks for the WolfPack, while Rida Erlalelitepe added six. Libby Meldrum finished with a game-high 29 assists on the night.

Abby Guezen, the recently anointed Canada West women’s volleyball player of the year, tallied a game-high 14 kills while Laila Johnston finished with 12 for Alberta.

TRU came out flying in just their second Canada West semi-final in program history as they led 5-1 early on. While the Pandas, who are reigning Canada West champions, were able to rally and tie things up at 15-15, TRU pulled ahead with five of the game’s next seven points to retake the lead at 20-17.

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The visitors though weren’t able to close things out as the Pandas rode an 8-0 run to win the first set.

The second set was similar as the WolfPack raced out to a 10-3 lead before the Pandas went on a 12-2 run en route to another set win. Down 20-12 in the third, TRU fought back to within one at 23-22, but they couldn’t keep the game alive.

“We started well in both the first and second set. We put some good service pressure on but offensively we got a little tentative,” head coach Chad Grimm said. “Alberta dug some good balls, I didn’t think we used the edges that well and blocking defensively we took a little bit of time to find a rhythm. At this time of year, the margins are small.”

“We hung in there. I didn’t like how we started the third set but we didn’t go away, we put some pressure on them but they are a good team. I thought generally we responded well but just needed to be a little bit cleaner to turn the tides of that game.”

The WolfPack have never won a Canada West women’s volleyball medal as their best finish was fourth in 2020. They’ll hope to better that result later against the second-seeded UBC Thunderbirds, who dropped a five-set thriller to the Trinity Western Spartans in the other semi-final.

The WolfPack and Thunderbirds will play at 4:00 p.m. B.C. time.