Cougars remain unbeaten downing WolfPack women’s volleyball team

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

“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," TRU head coach Chad Grimm says. “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.”

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.

OF NOTE: 

The “TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match” was: Windhorst (3rd year, outside hitter, Surrey, BC).