MVB LOSE HALLOWEEN TILT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA October 31, 2009
Posted by lread in Men's Volleyball.trackback
Gord Perrin led the way for TRU (A. Snucins photo)
When you play the two time defending National Champions, you can expect that they won’t give out any treats: even on Halloween. That’s what the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s volleyball team found out as they opened their 2009-10 Canada West season in Edmonton against the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
The Bears downed the WolfPack 3-0. The scores were 25-15, 25-23,25-22.
“We were nervous in the first set,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. “Whether it was the guys knowing they were playing in Alberta against the national champions or what, I don’t know.”
Hennelly said in the second set, the WolfPack had a lot of chances to win it before losing the momentum.
The third set saw TRU take an 8-3 lead before the Bears took a time out. “They came out and were doing a lot of yelling and that put our young guys on our heels a bit. “ Hennelly explains. “Our nerves came back and we couldn’t recover.” The WolfPack did close the deficit in the final set to 16-13 at one point.
Gord Perrin (3rd year, outside hitter, Creston, BC) showed again why he was one of the captains of Canada’s Junior National Team. Perrin had 20 kills. By the second set, he had 15 kills without an error and was swinging .600. Kevin Tillie (1st year, left side, Cagnes Sur Mer, France) had 12 kills.
“We played not bad in the second and third set,” Hennelly recounted. “If we can take that and apply it to tommorrow’s game, we might have a better result.”
The Bears offence began to click a little stronger in the second and third sets. Thompson Rivers focused more attention to Jarmoc, and that opened the door for DeRocco to find his younger brother Jason DeRocco on a more consistent basis.
The DeRocco duo gave Thompson Rivers all they could handle as Jason notched six kills in the second set, as he finished with nine.
Defensively, Alberta had their way with Thompson Rivers as they dominated the area around the net, out blocking the Wolf Pack 19-3.
“We blocked better today than at any point so far this season,” said Alberta coach Terry Danyluk.
The duo of Mike DeRocco and Justin Merta combined for 12 blocks.
TRU jumped out to their only lead of the game in the third set leading 8-3 heading into the first technical timeout, but Alberta took over the lead for good after back-to-back blocks from the DeRocco brothers to make it 10-9.
“We let a four-point lead shrink in the second set, and they were able to gain some momentum off of it,” explained Danyluk.
“That is what can happen in a third set, and unfortunately we got into a rut, but we were able to pull ourselves out of it.”
The Golden Bears are the defending two-time national champions, while Thompson Rivers is set to host their first national championship this season after coming off a bronze medal performance in their second trip to nationals last year.
“All we are focusing is on us. TRU is in the same position as we were in last year, and we just wanted to make sure we earned our way there,” added Danyluk.
“It’s a bit of a different focus for us this year, we still want to make sure we earn our spot at nationals, but it was important for us to send a strong message.”
The WolfPack (0-1) and the Bears (2-1) meet again Sunday (Nov 1) at 1pm (MDT). TRU returns home to host the University of Regina Cougars in their home opener November 6 th at the Tournament Capital Center in Kamloops. That night will be busy with special functions involving both TRUAlumni and First Year Students. It is also United Way night with all proceeds from the gate and related activities going to the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo United Way.
It’s also a McDonalds weekend. If the WolfPack were to win in three straight sets, all in attendance would get a free Big Mac courtesy of Al Gozda and Kamloops McDonalds Restaurants. The match on November 6 th starts at 745 pm.
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