WOLFPACK MVB WIN OWN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT
(pictured is the McDonald's Invitiational International Volleyball Tournament Allstar Team: Back row (l-r), Paul Carroll of Pepperdine, Martin Korsbak of TRU, Taylor Jaynes of Pepperdine, Gord Perrin of TRU and MVP Robin Schoebel of TRU
Front row (l-r) Yusuke Nakamura or Budo Intrernational and Maxime Claessens of Sherbrooke)
For immediate release: January 4, 2009
Kamloops-If the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Men’s Volleyball team needed a boost going into the second half of the Canada West regular season, they got it this weekend. The WolfPack went through their own International tournament unbeaten. TRU needed five sets to dispose of the #3 ranked team in the NCAA—The Pepperdine University Wave of California in the final of the McDonald’s Invitiational. The scores were 21-25,25-22,17-25,25-20,15-8. The WolfPack went through the tournament unbeaten in four starts.
“It was a huge win for us,” WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly reflected afterward “ to be down to Pepperdine and not play well in the third set and come back. We were aggressive and got the job done. I can’t say enough about how Shoebel(Robin, 3rd year outside hitter, Monaco) and Gord (Perrin, 2nd year outside hitter, Creston, BC) led the way.
The third set saw TRU down 6-3 early before going on a 5-0 run to go ahead 13-9.
Perrin had 22 kills on 46 attempts with five errors. Schoebel had 20 kills and five errors on 41 attempts. Both were rewarded with post tournament honors. Perrin was named to the All-Star squad while Schoebel was the Tournament Most Valuable Player.
“You are either good enough or your not,” said Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy. “Today we were not.”
Pepperdine was led by two time All-American Paul Carroll. Carroll, Australia’s player of the year for 2008 was named to the Tournament All-Star team. He had 21 kills and seven errors in 47 attempts. He also had 11 digs.
Hennelly knew that despite beating Pepperdine in four sets during the round robin, the Gold Medal match would be a war.
“I know Pepperdine has a lot of pride in their program,” he stated. “They traditionally are a great program. They have one of the greatest coaches in the game sitting across the table…their guys were going to fight not to let Marv Dunphy down. They know they wanted to come out and represent themselves better than they did in the round robin. We did a great job in the fourth set, we were on the ropes and we came back fighting. I think that’ll be huge in the confidence department.”
Dunphy had a lot of praise for the WolfPack, whom Pepperdine beat in three straight sets to end the inaugural tournament in 2008.
“I think we are a little bit younger and not quite as good or as experienced as last year. But, basically they are a better team than they were last year. They won the serve and receiving battle. That was pretty clear. They knocked us around tonite.”
This was the second time that Pepperdine has been a part of the WolfPack tournament . It won’t be their last visit here if Dunphy has his way.“The community of Kamloops was awesome,” he said “ It was exciting for us to be here. We want to win, but Thompson Rivers University beat us fair and square.”
The Bronze Medal was won by Budo International of Japan. They took the University of Sherbrooke Vert et Or in three straight sets. The scores were: 25-23,34-32,25-17.
SIDEOUTS: The rest of the Tournament All-star team consisted of: Taylor Jaynes of Pepperdine (sophomore, middle, Granite Bay, Calif.), Martin Korsbak of TRU (3rd year, middle, Nyborg, Denmark), Maxime Claessens (third year, left side, Beaconsfield, Que) and outside Yusuke Nakamura of Budo International.
Shoebel had this to say about being MVP considering he missed most of the first part of the Canada West season due to injury. “ It’s a good way to go back for sure. But without a good team, it doesn’t mean anything. I have to realize that I’m glad to be back. I want to be back and keep my body healthy to get us to the Nationals.”
The WolfPack bench was a little bigger for the final. All three of the TRU graduates from their CIS Bronze Medal win in 2008 were there. Tony Zylstra and Tim Flannigan are Assistants with Hennelly’s program this year. They were joined by Graham Allard. Allard was in town from Prince George to attend a Coaching seminar which featured most of the Pepperdine and TRU Coaches. Allard coaches high school and club volleyball in P.G.
Attendance was up over last year for the event with as many as a thousand people taking in the matches.
The WolfPack return to Canada West Action on January 9-10 th when they visit the Cougars in Regina.