The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's volleyball team had their traditional capacity crowd for their Canada West home opener.  The large crowd of almost 1,800 saw some entertaining action but the hometown boys came out on the short end.

The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds downed the WolfPack 3-2.  The scores were 21-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-22, and 15-10.

The 'Pack fall to 0-4 on the season while UBC moves to 4-1.

"I thought our guys did great and competed," said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly. "There are things you would like to change but I think it's the best we have played all year.  It was a huge crowd which was nice to see.  Casey Knight had a pretty solid performance after being out for five weeks."

Knight (fifth year, outside hitter, Salt Spring Island, BC) led the WolfPack with 20 kills in 51 opportunities with a service ace, three digs and two block assists.   He was returning after an ankle injury.

Knight was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack Player of the Match.

"He looked good," assessed Hennelly. "He gave us a boost. We are looking to get more of our players back soon."

"I thought Thompson Rivers started strongly but didn't finish and they let us back into the match," said UBC bench boss Richard Schick.  "We took care of some of the simple things on our side of the court like passing.  Our passing improved through the match and I thought theirs worsened."

"There are times when we are indecisive and it costs you," Hennelly stated. "It costs you blocking, costs you setting and costs you on the service line. When you are decisive, good things happen.  We just need to trust our instincts and what we are working on. Overall, tonight was a great effort.  There were ups and downs on both sides.  We seemed to stall out in the fourth set."

In that fourth set, TRU was leading 7-0 before losing to UBC.  That comeback was the highlight of the match as far as Schick was concerned. "Coming back from that deficit showed the character we have."

UBC was led by Mac McNicol (third year, outside hitter, Calgary, AB) with 20 kills in 35 chances. He had a team-high eight digs and three block assists.

Byron Keturakis (first year, setter, Surrey, BC) had 27 assists and five digs while Milan Nikic (fourth year, setter, Calgary,AB) added 26 assists for the Thunderbirds.

After Knight,  Randy Grundmann (second year, outside hitter, Winnipeg, MB) had 14 kills in 36 swings for the WolfPack.

Graham Stoliker (fourth year setter, Surrey,BC) had 44 assists.

Matt Krueger (fifth year, libero, Abbotsford, BC) contributed 13 digs.

The two teams will wind up their weekend series on Saturday (October 25) at the Tournament Capital Centre. Game time is 6:45 pm and will be carried on Canada West TV.

The WolfPack will be celebrating Alumni Night.