Kamloops, BC - The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack are making a habit of sweeps in Canada West women's volleyball. For the second weekend in a row, the WolfPack swept their opponent.

This weekend (Jan 29-30), Thompson Rivers upped their record to 11-9 with back to back victories over the University of Manitoba Bisons. On Saturday (Jan 30), TRU won in straight sets. The scores were 25-22, 25-13, 25-17.  The Bisons are now 2-16.

"At times it wasn't pretty and both teams struggled offensively," stated TRU head coach Chad Grimm. "We struggled to find our rhythm. Defensively I thought we were better. We cleaned up our second contacts a bit more and put some good service pressure on them. We put them out of their system and were able to lock down and take care of business."

"I thought we came back prepared," said Bisons head coach Ken Bentley. "We lost by three in the first set. It wasn't like there weren't points out there for us to win it. We just didn't capitalize. We were going along nicely in the second until it was 11-9. We had a bad breakdown committing some hitting errors.  That and a couple of passing errors and it got away from us. That was disappointing. In the third we fell behind again. They got a good jump on us. Iuliia (Pakhomenko, 4^th year, outside hitter) had some spike serves and big blocks at the net which caught us. We started out with great intentions and had flashes of really good play but we are just too inconsistent right now."

Pakhomenko, the Canada West second star of the week led the match in offence with 12 kills in 33 swings with three service aces, 10 digs and a solo block.

Brianne Rauch (4^th year, outside hitter) had seven kills in 21 chances with four service aces, eight digs, three solo blocks and a block assist. She was chosen as the "TRU Bookstore/McDonalds Leader of the Pack" player of the match. Grimm said she had a great weekend: " Iuliia had a number of kills but she wasn't as usually is.  Bri stepped up this weekend. Last night she had a great game offensively and tonight again she was making high contact and hitting the ball deep. She hits a hard ball to dig (like a knuckleball).  She has been really solid for us the last couple of weeks."

Katie Woo (4^th year, setter) had 27 assists, two service aces, eight digs and two block assists. 

Grimm praised a few of his other players. "Amy (Norman, 4^th year, middle) was good again tonight. Krista (Hogewoning, 5^th year, outside hitter) was solid. Alyssa (Wolf, 5^th year, libero) was better on serve reception.  We weren't giving up as many points on reception which was a plus."

Norman had two kills in seven swings and three digs, a solo block and a block assist. Hogewoning had six kills in 28 chances and five digs while Wolf had eight digs.

Manitoba was led by Tori Studler (2^nd year, left side) with seven kills in 23 opportunities with four digs and a block assist.  Sarah Klassen (4^th year, middle) had 6 kills in 13 swings with four block assists while Sydney Booker (1^st year, setter) had 20 assists and six digs along with two block assists.

The WolfPack hit the road for matches next weekend (Feb 5-6) at UBC. Manitoba returns home to face Winnipeg Wesmen on February 4, and 6. The first match is Thursday (Feb 4) at Winnipeg. Bentley stated "It is always a great natural rivalry for us. We have had a real tough month playing three really good teams in a row and taking some lickings. We are home which is great. We need to reset. We have to put this one behind us pretty quickly and get back on track."