2016 WolfPack men's volleyball team
Image Credit: WolfPack Athletics Thompson Rivers University/Snucins
October 13, 2016 - 12:52 PM
KAMLOOPS - It’s off to Calgary for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s volleyball team. The ‘Pack' will be taking in an exhibition tournament at the University of Calgary which begins on Friday, Oct. 14.
Mike Hawkins’ crew will play three matches over two games beginning Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. MDT against the host University of Calgary Dinos.
“We’re looking forward to building off our solid weekend at UBCO at the beginning of October,” says Hawkins. “The Dino Cup will provide us with the final tune up before we begin our regular season against the University of Alberta. It’s nice for us to get a chance to see and play the Golden Bears before we meet up with them in our home opener.”
The WolfPack play their final match of this tournament against Alberta on Saturday (Oct 15). Their other match is against the Queen’s University Gaels on Friday night at 6 pm MDT.
“We are treating this weekend like a regular season weekend,” Hawkins explains. “We are going to travel with the same number of guys that we would during a Canada West weekend, and want to replicate the feeling on the court. We are still looking to roll the lineups with those who travelled, but the roster will be a little tighter than our past exhibition weekends.”
The interim head coach says as far as anyone locking up a starting position that is still to be decided.
“We have had a number of guys step up, in particular our middle blockers,” Hawkins states. “I knew this was going to be a strong point to our team but every day, we seem to have a different guy step up and dominate. By no means does that mean the other guys play poorly, they just seem to be taking turns going shot for shot. It’s a great problem to have.”
When asked how his team’s rookies are adjusting to life in the Canada West and at university, Hawkins says: “Our few rookies, especially Jake Hamilton (1st year, setter, Calgary, AB), have used the exhibition season well to get used to the speed and physicality of our league. Jake is a talented setter, but it does take some time getting used to the tempo of the offense and learning how to defend the opposition. He took some great strides in Kelowna, shaking off the nerves and getting the chance to play in front of his dad Chris and former coaches in the Mount Royal University staff.”
The WolfPack open up their 2016-17 Canada West regular season on the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Centre on Friday, Oct. 28 against Alberta. Game time will be 7:45 p.m. PDT.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016