WOLFPACK MEN'S VOLLEYBALL GO TO REGINA AND LEAVE COUGARS IN A PILE OF BONES.

For immediate release: January 10, 2008

Regina, Sask-The City of Regina is known as the 'pile of bones' in First Nations. The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack literally feasted on those bones this weekend as they swept the University of Regina Cougars in two straight matches. For the second straight night, The WolfPack pounced on the Cougars in 3 straight games. The scores on Saturday (Jan 10) were 25-17,25-23,25-21.

TRU extended its Canada West winning streak to four matches and their record to 7 and 5. The Cougars dropped to 0 and 12.

"Both teams were sharper tonite," stated TRU Coach Pat Hennelly. " We got a strong night from Gord Perrin (2nd year, outside hitter, Creston,BC). He, Martin Stenderup (2nd year, setter, Ribe, Denmark) and StefanSavoie (2nd year, middle, Winnipeg, Man.) came up with some big plays."

Second-year setter Martin Stenderup also played strong for TRU, dishing out 39 assists in just three sets and adding two digs and two blocks. Stefan Savoie had eight kills and a .583 attack percentage.

But the story was Perrin, the Canada West Rookie of the Year. Perrin had16 kills on just 25 attacks to lead the WolfPack. Perrin had just three errors, giving him a blistering .520 hitting percentage for the match. Second-year setter Martin Stenderup also played strong for TRU, dishing out 39 assists in just three sets and adding two digs and two blocks. Stefan Savoie had eight kills and a .583 attack percentage.

"We stayed focussed and took care of business. Its something we have to do on the road to be successful," said Hennelly, who's team is looking like a re-run. It was a strong second half which propelled the WolfPack into the Canada West playoffs in 2008. "We were sloppy at times but we didn't give a winless team any momentum and our play took their crowd out of it pretty early."

The WolfPack took control of the first set by going on a 9-1 after theCougars had pulled to within one point just after the first media timeout. The Cougars scored three consecutive points late in the set, but a kill by Josh Boruck gave TRU the set.

The second set was the most hotly contested of the three. Regina's fifth year player Christopher Knoop was on fire for the Cougars during the middle stanza, as he registered eight of his ten kills and added a service ace, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the WolfPack attack. Led by Perrin, who had seven kills on eight attacks, Thompson Rivers had a .517 hitting percentage during the second set and killed a late Regina rally with a Josh Boruck (2nd year, outside hitter, Revelstoke, BC) kill to clinch the second.

Knoop ended up with 10 kills and just one error on 20 attacks for a.450 hitting percentage. Knoop also had four assisted blocks and tied Lindsey Isaak for the team lead with five digs.

 The Cougars led for the majority of the third set, but Thompson Rivers scored seven of the set’s final nine points to clinch the match.Next weekend, Thompson Rivers will host Brandon, while the Cougars will travel for a pair of road matches at Manitoba.

"Everyone got significant playing time this weekend, which will only help us next week," said Hennelly. "If we can get Conor Eatch (1st year, middle, Aurora, Ont) into the lineup we'll be even stronger."

SIDEOUTS: Eatch is recovering from hernia surgery he had in early December. The WolfPack family got a little bigger on Saturday. WolfPack Women's head coach Cal Wohlford and his wife Leanne had a baby girl.Rorie Tristan was 8 pounds and 4 ounces and was born at 945 am at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. It's the first child for the Wohlford's. Both mom and baby are doing well.

Wohlford was joking on Friday that if the baby had come next weekend, he would have had to make Men's coach Hennelly an assistant. That way, He might have won two matches on the same night if the 'Pack teams had both gone onto victory.

Next Saturday (January 17), The WolfPack Men will honor their only graduating player: 5th year outside hitter Andy Haley of Stony Plain Alberta. Match times versus Brandon are  8 pm on Friday (Jan 16) and 730 pm on Saturday (Jan 17).

For the first time, the WolfPack will be selling beer at their home games. That will happen next Saturday night.

(with help from the University of Regina Sports Information Department)