WolfPack men’s volleyball begin their own tournament with a win

Dec 30, 2015 | 5:23 AM

Kamloops, BC—The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack opened their own men’s volleyball tournament with a straight set victory over the visiting Royal Military College of Canada (OUA). Playing on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops, BC on Tuesday (Dec 29).

The scores were 25-20,25-14,25-17.

TRU was led by Brad Gunter (5th year, outside hitter, Courtenay, BC), Daniel Eikland Rod (4th year, outside hitter, Oz,Norway) and Brandon Hewwing (5th year, outside hitter, Calgary, AB) with nine kills a piece.

Tyler Pomietlarz (3rd year, setter, Kelowna, BC) had 33 assists.  Charlie Bringloe (1st year, outside hitter, Waterloo, ON) had 10 digs.

“The guys played very well tonight,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly.  “Tyler did a good job distributing the ball. Dan, Brandon and Brad all played well on the outside. We struggled early to control our service errors but once we had that stabilized, we were able to get on a roll.”

Hennelly added that Royal Military College had a number of their top players injured.

Leading  the way for Royal Military College was Adam Lupton with five kills.  Michael Peet had 11 assists while Blake McLelland had six digs.

Hennelly praised Bringloe’s performance. “ He came on for Brad and played great defense. It has been a focus for Charlie in practice to improve that aspect of his game. It was nice to see that 10 dig performance in only one and a half sets.”

In the other match on opening day: the University of Calgary Dinos downed the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat 3-1. The scores were 25-16,25-20,22-25,25-23.

Alexander Bader led the way for Calgary with 14 kills in 27 attempts. Curtis Stockton had 12 kills in 24 chances. Jackson Maris had 37 assists for the Dinos.

UBCO was led by Devon Cole with 13 kills in 25 chances. Alex Swiatlowski and Jim Bell added 12 kills a piece. Ethan Freund had 26 assists while Kristof Schlagintweight added 22 assists.

Matches continue Wednesday (Dec 30) at the Tournament Capital Centre.  Calgary meets Royal Military College at 11 am followed by UBCO facing TRU at 1 pm. The final match of the tourney goes at 5 pm with UBCO facing Royal Military College.

TRU returns to action in the Canada West on Friday January 7 th when they visit the Mount Royal Cougars in Calgary. Their first home regular season match of 2016 will be Friday January 15 th when the University of Saskatchewan Huskies pay a visit to the Warner Rentals Court at the TCC.  Game time will be 7:45 pm.

 

SIDE OUTS: Royal Military College is the latest OUA team to come to Kamloops for exhibition play:  Windsor Lancers came last year (2014-15).  “They (RMC) have been a great team to host,” Hennelly added.