MVB TO CANADA WEST FINAL 4 AND CIS NATIONALS FOR 2ND STRAIGHT YEAR.
for immediate release: February 14, 2009
Langley BC--You can bet that members of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Men's Volleyball team won't forget Valentine's Day again. But unfortunately for their 'special someone', at least the next couple of years they'll have to take a back seat to a sporting memory.
Valentine's Day 2009 will be remembered by the WolfPack as the date they advanced to the Canada West Final Four and the CIS National Championships for a second straight year.
Thompson Rivers won the third and deciding game of their quarter final with the host Trinity Western Spartans. The WolfPack won 3-2. The scores were 21-25,25-20,25-21,21-25,15-11.
As fitting of a five set match the teams were evenly matched in all statistics. Thompson Rivers had 58 kills at 21 percent, four aces and 11 blocks, while Trinity Western had 54 kills at 20 percent, three aces and 10 blocks.
"The boys really picked it up," said a jubilant head coach Pat Hennelly. " After we lost Behluhl (Yavasgel, 4th year, outside hitter, Aydin Turkey) in the third set, Andy (Haley, outside hitter, 5 th year, Stony Plain, Alta) and Marty (Stenderup, 2nd year, setter, Ribe, Denmark) really stepped it up."
Yavasgel suffered a lower body injury. Its not known how long he'll be out after being examined further by team medical staff.
"Both those guys (Haley and Stenderup) performed well under pressure," Hennelly continued. " Robin Schoebel came up with some big serves and Andy made a big kill in that set. A kill he'll probably remember for the rest of his life."
Schoebel got five key points while serving to bring the WolfPack from a 9-7 deficit to lead 12-9. Haley's kill made it 14-11.
The WolfPack found themselves down quickly in the game again, trailing 4-0 in the first set before Hennelly called a time out. Their attack percentage was .000 as they fell 25-21.
The second set saw Trinity again jump out to a 3-1 lead before TRU tied it at 6 and went up by two prompting Spartan coach Ben Josephson to call a time out. That seemed to spur on Trinity as they then scored three straight points to tie it and eventually move ahead 12-11. But the WolfPack scored three straight to go up 19-15. TRU went onto win the set 25-20.
In the third set, the teams were tied at 2 before the Spartans scored three in a row thanks to a pair of attack errors by Shoebel and a service error by Gord Perrin (2nd year, outside hitter, Creston, BC). But the WolfPack didn't give up and cut the defisit to 16-15 thanks to kills by Schoebel, Perrin and Haley. Thanks to a Colin Jaggard (4 th year, setter, Calgary,Alta) service ace, the WolfPack went ahead 19-18 and never looked back winning 25-21.
The fourth set saw the teams tied 5-5 at one point before Trinity knocked off 5 straight points to take a 10-5 lead and the set 25-21.
The 5 th set was a see saw battle with the WolfPack quickly going up 3-1. Trinity came back to tie it up before a kill by Shoebel gave TRU a 4-3 lead. Trinity squared things up at 5 and took a lead 6-5 on a Rudy Verhoff service ace. The Spartans scored four straight points to move ahead 8-5 before the WolfPack mounted a comeback, scoring four point in a row.
Shoebel wound up with 17 kills on 41 attempts with nine errors. Perrin had 15 kills in 40 opportunties with11 errors. Stefan Savoie (2nd year, middle, Winnipeg, Man) had 14 kills and 4 errors on 24 opportunities. He garnered praise from his coach. " Stef played well,' said Hennelly "With Gord struggling offensively, we needed someone to come in and give us a spark. He certainly did that".
Jaggard had 48 assists with Kyle Donen (3rd year, libero, White Rock, BC) adding 12 digs. In the season ending loss the Spartans were led by Marc Howatson (Victoria) 13 kills and Josh Doornenbal (Edmonton), Chaim Schalk (Red Deer, Alta.) and Rudy Verhoeff (Calgary) who each finished with 10 kills each.
The season is done for the Spartans. TRU will move onto the Canada West Finals next week (Feb 20-22) in Edmonton and the CIS Nationals in Edmonton beginning February 26 th.
SIDEOUTS: Hennelly on what they learned for this series: "That we should never give up. In the third set tonite we were slumped over on the bench. I asked the players who will step up and tonite a few guys did. Each night we had a different person leading us. Thursday night it was Martin Korsbak (3rd year, middle, Nyborg, Denmark), Schoebel was solid all weekend and tonite Stef, Marty and Andy were there in the crunch".
On comparing this years team to the one which won a bronze medal in 2008: "I think we had more emotion last year. We have been weighed down by a lot of expectations. I don't think we played to our potential during the regular season. We are such a young program that its taking us some time to play with the confidence of a proven winner. I think that's changing".
Barring an upset, the WolfPack will take on defending CIS and Canada West Champion Alberta in the first round of the Canada West final four. Alberta had the bye this weekend after finishing first in the regular season.
(with assistance from the Trinity Western Sports Information Department)