KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack women's volleyball team sent the near capacity crowd inside the Tournament Capital Centre home happy after they started their season with a 3-2 (27-29, 15-25, 25-19, 27-25, 15-7) victory over the Brandon Bobcats.
The visiting Bobcats took the first two sets of the match before the WolfPack rallied to give interim head coach Behlul Yavasgel the first win of his head coaching career.
"It was a night of finding our identity," said Yavasgel. "With this being our first game infront of a crowd we struggled finding our identity early, but we slowly found it over the night."
Ema Palkovicova led the way offensively for TRU. Playing in her first WolfPack game, the product of Bratislava, Slovakia had 13 kills on her 27 attacks. Brooklyn Olfert and Erin Mutch added 12 and 11 apiece with Abby Spratt racking up 33 assists in her first game back after playing professionally in Europe last year.
Keely Anderson and Avery Burgar were dominant for the Bobcats finishing with 15 and 14 kills respectively. Directing the Brandon offence was Carly Thomson who recorded a ridiculous 43 assists.
Brandon rallied to take the first set. The Bobcats were down 21-17 at one point and fought off four set points before earning the 29-27 win. Syree Tucker had a pair of kills on just five swings in the set for the Bobcats.
Brandon extended their lead in the second frame. The Bobcats hit .727 per cent as a team in the set and a massive run from 12-11 all the way to 22-13 powered them to the 2-0 lead.
TRU refused to go away without a fight however, jumping out to an early 12-7 lead before cruising to the 25-19 victory. Time-and-time again in the third rookie Olivia Andulajevic came up big for the 'Pack, making multiple spectacular digs to keep the WolfPack in rallies.
"She played unreal, I'm so proud of her," said Yavasgel of Andulajevic. "She is either not nervous or is hiding it very well. She played very well under pressure and still has a long way to go but what a first game for her as a rookie, I haven't witnessed a better first game from a libero."
TRU was able to just pull out a back-and-forth fourth set.
A massive ace from Olfert gave the WolfPack a 24-22 lead. A pair of Anderson kills kept the Bobcats in it but two straight errors from the visitors allowed TRU to pull out the 27-25 set victory and send things to a fifth and final set.
That fifth set belonged to TRU. The hosts jumped out to a 10-3 lead that they wouldn't surrender en route to completing the comeback.
These two teams will meet again tomorrow inside the Tournament Capital Centre with first serve scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
