KAMLOOPS, BC – The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack salvaged a weekend split with the visiting University of Saskatchewan Huskies after a 3-1 (26-28,26-24,25-14,25-8) win Saturday night at the Tournament Capital Centre.
With the win, TRU improves to 7-11. Saskatchewan is 9-9.
The Huskies jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first set before Kendra Finch started to serve and brought her team even at 5-5. The WolfPack got some timely kills and blocks and jumped to a five point lead going into the technical time out leading 16-9. The Huskies clawed their way back to a two point deficit thanks to a serving run by Georgia Hurry and trailed 18-16. After TRU took a time out leading 24-23, the Huskies scored twice to take a 25-24 advantage. The teams traded points before Saskatchewan pulled out a 28-26 victory.
In the second set, TRU led 7-3 until they committed five straight attack errors which allowed Saskatchewan back into it. The Huskies scored seven points in a row to force Pack head coach Chad Grimm to call a time out down 9-7. They continued their momentum and jumped to a four point lead at 13-9. Morgan Rigelhoff came into the match and delivered two straight service aces en route to a 16-14 advantage going into the technical time out. TRU led 24-20 and held off a Husky rally to win the second set 26-24.
The third set opened the same way as the previous two, with TRU taking a big lead and headed into the tech time out up 16-6. Yevgeniya Nyukhalova, the Canada West kills leader paced the 'Pack in this set with five kills giving her 10 in the match at that point.
The Huskies couldn't recover and the WolfPack led the fourth set from start to finish up by 12 at one point (19-7). They won the match on a service ace from Carly Gunter her second straight.
Rachel Windhorst led the WolfPack with 15 kills and six digs and Finch recorded 17 digs.
Taylor Annala led the Huskies with nine kills and eight digs, while Emily Koshinsky had another six kills and six digs.
The WolfPack remain at home to host the Calgary Dinos next weekend, while Saskatchewan returns to Saskatoon to host the UBC Okanagan Heat.