Box Score LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 6 Thompson Rivers men's volleyball team captured the Canada West bronze medal with a 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23) win over No. 10 Brandon Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
 
With the win, the WolfPack earned its third Canada West bronze medal in program history, having previously won in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
 
After winning Canada West gold and CIS bronze last year, the Bobcats were forced to settle for a fourth place finish.
 
In a contest that was back and forth throughout, the WolfPack edged Brandon in large part because of a .295 attacking percentage. The Bobcats, who hit .256, out-blocked TRU 10-6.5 and had six aces to TRU's five, but the WolfPack scored when it mattered, earning two-point wins in both the third and fourth sets.
 
The WolfPack was led by Brad Gunter, who had a match-high 25 kills as well as 14 digs. Casey Knight added 12 kills and three blocks while Jacob Tricarico had seven kills and a team-high four blocks. Setter Graham Stoliker, who replaced fifth-year Colin Carson midway through the first set, finished with a match-high 39 assists.
 
"We wanted to get Graham Stoliker, who is going to be setting for us next year, some real time experience," said TRU coach Pat Hennelly. "We wanted Colin to end on his own terms, so he called his own sub in that first set. And I thought Graham did a great job executing the game plan.
 
The WolfPack came out in the first set, building a 5-2 advantage, and held the lead throughout. Brandon tied it at 20-20, but Gunter responded with a kill and an ace to give TRU a 22-20 lead. Then two more Gunter kills gave the WolfPack at 24-21 lead a before Jordan Foot block won the set for TRU.
 
The second set looked like it was going Brandon's way early as the Bobcats established a 14-10 lead after a Tuivai kill. But TRU battled back and managed to go up 17-16. However, after Gunter put TRU up 23-22, the Bobcats responded with three straight points. Back-to-back blocks earned Brandon the set 25-23 and evened the match.
 
After hitting .133 in the first set, Brandon hit .417 as a team in the second. On the other side of the net it was a more consistent story as TRU hit .333 in the first set and .312 in the second.
 
The WolfPack opened a 7-3 lead in the third set after a Stuart Richey kill and possessed the lead through much of the set. After a monster kill from Gunter, TRU went up 22-19, but only to see Brandon respond and get within one point, at 23-22. Shortly thereafter, with a block from Jones, Brandon evened the score 24-24. But with two straight kills from Gunter, TRU won the set 26-24.
 
Looking to extend the match to a fifth set, Brandon scored the first four points of the fourth set, forcing TRU into an early timeout. But out of the break, the Bobcats kept rolling and pushed their lead to 10-3. But TRU came right back and tied the set 12-12 after back-to-back aces. From there the teams traded points to 23-23 before the WolfPack finished the set with the final two points of the match. With a kill from Gunter, off the block and out of bounds, TRU edged the Bobcats 25-23.
 
"It was your typical bronze medal game," said Brandon coach Grant Wilson. "Both teams are frustrated that they're not in the gold medal game and it showed on the court. Both teams had some flashes of good volleyball but certainly some flashes of not so good volleyball, which is kind of what I expected. Unfortunately in the end our team fell a bit short tonight."
 
Game Notes: Brandon had 13 serving errors while TRU had 16…including its two regular season wins over the WolfPack went 3-0 against the Bobcats this season.