Box Score Larry Read, TRU Wolfpack Sports Infomation
KAMLOOPS - The Mount Royal Cougars have moved to 3-0 this young Canada West women's volleyball season. They opened up a weekend series with the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack by taking them 3-1 Friday night (Nov 11) at the Tournament Capital Centre.
SYNOPSIS
The Cougars won the first two sets en route to the victory. The scores were 25-21,25-19,21-25,25-22. They were led offensively by Taylor Pelland ( 3rd year, outside hitter, Wanham, AB) who had 15 kills in 30 swings with a service ace and nine digs. TRU's offense was powered by USport and Canada West Player of the year Iullia Pakhomenko (5th year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) with 20 kills in 45 swings with two service aces, seven digs and a block assist.
KEY STATS:
TRU
Iullia Pakhomenko 20 kills in 45 chances 2 service aces, 7 digs, 1 block assist
Rachel Windhorst 12 kills in 31 opportunities 11 digs, 1 block assist
Abby Spratt 34 assists
MOUNT ROYAL
Taylor Pelland 15 kills in 30 swings, 9 digs, 1 service ace
Alex Donaghy 12 kills in 26 chances, 1 service ace, six digs
Chantal Park 5 service aces four digs
Amy Gordon 23 assists
Alisa Dandenault 14 assists 2 digs
RECORDS:
TRU 2-3 Mount Royal 3-0
QUOTES:
TRU head coach Chad Grimm:
On Match: "I found that we never found our rhythm. We were hesitant to start and a little hesitant to finish. We never really found our flow.
On Third Set: "It was a nice comeback after the first two. The girls started the fourth like that too. We started to relax a bit and play. Unfortunately, we fell back to being hesitant in the fourth set."
Cougars head coach Sandra Lamb:
On match: "The difference was that we decided to make a good blocking system against them. Our passing was pretty good. We were struggling on the service line early in the match. With a team that has Iullia on the other side, which is a tough one to play against."
On fourth set: "We were giving away too many one on ones and Kolasa (Morgan, 4th year, middle, Calgary, AB) started to pop a couple. We had a bit of dip. It has been nice to see these guys really fight back which they really haven't done much of that in the past."
On being unbeaten in 3 straight: " You never know. This league is so equal. The parity across the board. Each weekend is a grind so we are, not going to say we are pleasantly surprised but we are very fortunate and riding this wave right now. It is really nice to be 3-0."
UP NEXT:
Both teams will go at it again on Saturday (November 12th) on the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Centre. Game time is 5 pm. Webcast on Canada West TV will begin around 4:45 pm. Says Grimm about what they have to do to split the weekend: "I don't know if we are overthinking or we as a coaching staff have to be more clear on what our jobs need to be. I think we are getting caught up in a lot of things. We were running around on defense: unsure of who was taking seams and reception. Those things we need to definitely clear up before tomorrow."
Next weekend (Nov 18-19, the WolfPack will be entertaining the UBC Thunderbirds on the Warner Rentals Court while Mount Royal will be home to the UBCO Heat.
