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Sports

TRU play good host to Canada West rivals

Cam Charron - Sports Editor

While their Canada West rivals Calgary, Trinity Western and Alberta finished gold, silver and bronze in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s volleyball championships, the host WolfPack had to settle for sixth place, after dropping a five-set decision to Queens Sunday afternoon.

“There wasn’t a lot of energy today,” head coach Pat Hennelly said about the Sunday match that had many fans catching up on their hour of sleep. “We didn’t show any fire until I think they already had 13 points. You know, Queens is a good team and it’s too late to show the fire at that point.”

With the WolfPack sporting some of the best hitters in Canada, a medal in their home tournament was expected at the start of the season, but as the weekend drew on, their inexperience showed. It certainly didn’t help that the fifth-year Turkish captain, Behlul Yavasgel, dislocated his shoulder and had to watch his final CIS games on the bench.

“Sometimes, whatever you do, it doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t work,” the philosophical Yavasgel said after the game. “You can’t mentally prepare yourself, it’s fifth-and-sixth, it’s hard to play, but our guys fought.”

Yavasgel said that his favourite memory with the WolfPack was beating Laval in their home gym in the first round of nationals back in 2008. The WolfPack would win bronze that year; their only CIS medal thus far in existence.

The WolfPack started off the weekend with a Friday tilt against the University of Alberta, a team that they’ve had their struggles with. They were 0-3 against them this season, including a date in the first round of the Canada West playoffs. With the meeting in front of a partisan crowd of 1,200 equipped with orange thundersticks, it was under different circumstances.

Thompson Rivers won the first set 25-21, but dropped the next three to fall in four sets. Spencer Leiske led the Golden Bears with 19 kills. Robin Schoebel led the WolfPack with 15, but the team made 26 hitting errors, 22 in the final three sets, and 14 off the serve.

“That’s the best we’ve battled the Bears ever since we’ve played them,” Hennelly said after that one.

Saturday’s game, the consolation semi-final, was against a Dalhousie team that came out absolutely flat after a heartbreaking loss to Calgary the previous night. TRU easily dispatched the Atlantic champions in three sets.

“I think we were a little nervous [Friday] because we’d never beat Alberta,” said Kevin Tillie, who had a game-high 11 kills and fired at 64 per cent. Last Wednesday he was also named the CIS rookie of the year, the first in WolfPack history. “To be in another country and to be recognized is very good. I’m very happy about it.”

Colin Carson, the rookie setter thrust into a starting role, struggled, but enjoyed the learning experience. “Just being at nationals and getting all this competition, and experiencing it, it’s obviously going to help us,” Carson said. “Everyone is pretty young.”

It may be a totally different team next year Fourth years Robin Schoebel and Gord Perrin were mum on whether Sunday against Queens was the last they’ll play in the orange and black. Looking ahead, this year’s rookies Tillie, Carson, and libero Spencer Reed will be the kids to watch as we look ahead to next year.