The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s volleyball team will be glad to head home this weekend against UBC searching for their elusive first win of the season.
The WolfPack, who feature Stuart Richey from Roberts Creek, dropped a pair of matches in Calgary last weekend against the Dinos to drop to 0-4 on the season.
On Friday night, Calgary swept the match in three sets with Richey coming up with five digs in the losing cause. Saturday night, the WolfPack played much better taking Calgary to the max losing in five sets. Richey had 10 kills in 27 chances with seven digs.
“We had a solid performance on Saturday,” said head coach Pat Hennelly. “We had 11 of the 13 guys who played hit the floor and at one point, we had four first-year players on the court. We fell a little flat in the first part of the fifth set.”
Thompson Rivers is looking to improve upon a bronze medal win from last year’s return to the post season.
The ‘Pack have played more exhibition matches than any other Canada West team (10) and Hennelly believes the extra playing time has paid off.
Despite the slow start, he said he has seen some great play so far from the team.
“We have a long first half with the back-to-back road matches. Thankfully Langley and Calgary are both relatively short. I think it will be good to start on the road before coming back to the Tournament Capital Centre for our typically big home opening crowd,” he said. “This year in the Canada West will be a long season and injuries and depth will be a factor.
Part of that depth will come from Richey who is in his fifth season.
“It seems every spot from first to 13th will be contested. I think some very good teams will miss the playoffs this year.”
