Abby Spratt
Image Credit: Thompson Rivers University
November 23, 2016 - 11:56 AM
The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women’s volleyball team has the team right below them in the Canada West standings as their opponent for their final weekend of play before the Christmas Break.
Chad Grimm and the ‘Pack will be in Edmonton, Alberta to face the MacEwan University Griffins. TRU enters the weekend at 4-4 while MacEwan is 2-6.
“It’s a critical weekend for our team as we would obviously like to go into the break with as many wins in the bank as possible,’ Grimm says. “Last visit to MacEwan, we were battling for a playoff spot and they swept us. They also beat us 3-0 in the preseason, so it would be nice for our group to get some redemption going into the break.”
Grimm isn’t reading too much into the fact that MacEwan has dropped its last six matches. “I think their schedule over the last two weeks has been tough for them with Trinity and Alberta on back to back weekends. I am sure they are looking forward to heading back home. Hopefully, we can put some pressure on them from the start of the match on Friday and be disciplined and relentless in doing our jobs until the last point Saturday.”
The two sides match up well. “They have some young girls on the court much like us and one outside hitter that gets very high volume so we are similar in those ways,” Grimm states. “We have been able to diversify our offense a bit more this season so hopefully that will allow us to score in more ways than them.”
USport and Canada West player of the year Iullia Pakhomenko (5th year, outside hitter, Donetsk, Ukraine) leads the league in kills (125) and is fourth in kills per set (4.03). Rookies Avery Pottle (middle, Uxbridge, ON) and Abby Spratt (setter, Calgary, AB) are fifth in blocks per set (1.22) and fourth in assists per set (8.70) respectively.
The WolfPack have been focusing on ‘their side of the net’ along with taking care of the ball in serve and reception in practice. TRU has the bye in the final week of pre-Christmas competition.
They return to the court between Christmas and New Years to host two USport Nationally ranked teams: Dalhousie (AUS) and UBCO (Canada West) in exhibitions. Those will be held at the Tournament Capital Centre.
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