Bears open 26/27 season with 3-0 win over TRU

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The University of Alberta Golden Bears fought off three set points against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack in a marathon opening set, then rolled to a 30-28, 25-15, 25-20 win on Friday morning at the TCC.

Set one was a back-and-forth battle from the start. Alberta led 8-5 early on a pair of Dylan Martens kills and an ace, and TRU responded to tie it at 14, then again at 17. The Golden Bears pulled ahead 23-19 and reached set point at 24-21, but TRU ran off three straight, including a pair of Alberta attack errors, to tie it at 24. The teams traded points through four ties in the extra frame before Trent Cherewaty put Alberta ahead 29-28 with a kill and TRU’s Alex Howard sent the next swing wide to end it.

The Golden Bears came out firing in the second set, jumping ahead 7-3 on a Martens ace and a pair of blocks, then stretching it to 12-6 on a Luke Weddell ace that forced a TRU timeout. Alberta hit .571 in the set with no attack errors, while TRU managed a -.150 mark. Cherewaty served an ace at 16-9 to force another timeout, and he closed out the set with another one.

TRU led early in the third set, going ahead 4-3, but Martens tied it and then served back-to-back aces to put Alberta up 6-4. The Golden Bears built a 15-9 lead on Tyson DeZutter kills, then held off a short TRU run to go ahead 22-16. Britain Ward’s ace helped the WolfPack cut it to 22-19 and force an Alberta timeout, but Martens answered with a kill on the next possession, and Alberta finished it off when Jacob Sargent and Owen Harris combined on a block to end the match.

Alberta finished hitting .310 against TRU’s .082 and won the battle at the net, outblocking the WolfPack 10.0 to 4.0. The Golden Bears also held a 9-3 edge in aces, led by four from Martens.

DeZutter led the way with 10 kills on .421 hitting, while Martens added eight kills on .500 hitting. Sargent had eight kills and five blocks, and Weddell handed out 27 assists.

The win moves Alberta to 1-0 on the season, while TRU falls to 0-3. The two teams will meet again Saturday, Oct. 31, at 3 p.m., with Alberta visiting TRU. The game can be seen live on Canada West TV powered by BioSteel.

-UA-