The Bisons women’s volleyball team lost the Canada West quarter-finals against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack in Kamloops, B.C., at the Tournament Capital Centre.
The Bisons women’s volleyball team won bronze in the 2024-25 Canada West championship but were knocked out this year, bringing their season to a close. However, it wasn’t a clean flush. This weekend, the Bisons lost 2-3 on Thursday, Feb. 26, won 3-1 on Friday, Feb. 27 and lost 0-3 on Saturday, Feb. 28.
In game one on Thursday, the WolfPack won the first set, the herd won the second, the WolfPack won the third, the Bisons won the fourth and the WolfPack won the fifth. No team won consecutive sets. Even though the Bisons had more total kills (56-49) and both teams committed the same number of attack errors (27), the herd lost due to swings in key scoring stretches. The WolfPack’s efficiency in the two most important sets (25-16 in Set 3 and 15-8 in Set 5) directly determined the win. Bisons’ Raya Surinx had 17 kills, the highest in the game.
In game two on Friday, the Bisons won 3-1. Each set was highly contested (25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22). Surinx, who played well in the previous game, went nuclear and got 30 kills. In comparison, the WolfPack had a total of 49 kills in the game. The Bisons dominated this game with higher kills (56-49), higher assists (54-46) and higher digs (67-62).
After splitting the wins in the first two games, the WolfPack dominated the herd 3-0 in game three on Saturday. The first set was extremely close, 25-23.
However, in the second set, the WolfPack did not take their foot off the gas. The WolfPack was able to find gaps where the herd athletes were not able to go for a dig. Additionally, the WolfPack’s defence blocked the responses from the Bisons — this allowed them to stretch the lead to 10-1. The Bisons tried their best and cut the score to 18-13. This is where the Bisons lost grip of the game, as the WolfPack went from 18-13 to 25-13 with kills by Keira Gent, service aces and, on top, two attack errors by the herd.
The Bisons improved in the third set but still lost 18-25. The WolfPack took the win to qualify for the Canada West final four.
In the final game, the Bisons were having trouble playing high roll shots from the WolfPack, Gent was getting kills from the line shot. To block line shots, the Bisons would gather on a side of the net, resulting in a sizeable gap in the middle of the court which was later targeted. WolfPack libero Olivia Andulajevic was great at setting up balls for the offence, setting up kills for Rida Erlalelitepe.
With great blocks from the WolfPack, the Bisons struggled to get the ball over the net. On strong serves from the WolfPack, the Bisons sometimes struggled to send it back. Even when the Bisons did return the serves, it was often a free ball in play for the WolfPack offence, so the WolfPack’s offence either went directly for a kill or set up for a roll shot.
With this win, the WolfPack has secured their place in the U SPORTS Championships. The WolfPack will face the Alberta Pandas on March 6 for the Canada West semifinals.
