BRANDON – The Brandon University women's volleyball team dropped their Canada West home opener in five sets on Friday night against the visiting Thompson Rivers WolfPack at the Healthy Living Centre.
 
The set scores were 23-25, 26-24, 25-11, 19-25, 15-7.
 
The opening set was back and forth with TRU holding a slim 16-15 lead at the technical timeout. The remainder of the set followed a similar script with the two sides all square at 22-22. Jodie Baker came through in the clutch with a service ace to give the Bobcats set point at 24-23 and they grinded out the win.
 
The Bobcats had a 7-3 run in the second set, but just like the first, it was the WolfPack who held the lead at the technical timeout 16-14. Thompson Rivers had a 5-1 run to go up 18-15, but Brandon worked away at the deficit and tied the set 21-21. The WolfPack eventually pulled away in extra points.
 
The third set was all WolfPack as they held leads of 6-1, 13-5 and 16-6 to grab major momentum in the match.
 
Brandon had their backs against the wall in the fourth set and they responded to the adversity. BU had a 7-2 run late in the set to lead 21-18 en route to forcing a fifth and deciding set.
 
Thompson Rivers regained the advantage in the fifth with leads of 5-1 and 8-1. Brandon fought back to make it 11-5, but that is as close as they would get.
 
Iuliia Pakhomenko put away 28 kills as the WolfPack improved to 1-and-2.

Courtney Roberts recorded 14 kills as the Bobcats slipped to 0-and-3.

Brandon will try to split the weekend series when the play TRU in the rematch on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the HLC.