EDMONTON – When your team is in a skid, the stars need to shine. And that was exactly what happened for the defending Canada West and U SPORTS Champion Golden Bears on Saturday night. Reigning national Player of the Year Isaac Heslinga paced the Bears with 19 kills on just 37 swings, adding nine digs and an ace in a 3-0 Alberta win over Thompson Rivers.
His ace set a new Golden Bears program record, with Heslinga becoming the first Bear with 100 in their conference careers. The ace broke a tie Heslinga held with teammate Jordan Canham, who concluded his career with 99.
Following the weekend, Heslinga also moved into second in Bears history with 1,123 kills, and third with 1,312.0 points and 2,318 career attempts.
The win for Alberta snapped their three-game losing streak, improving their record to 12-4. The weekend split sees the WolfPack record move to 4-10.
Sophomore Dylan Martens added 13 kills for Alberta, with Luke Weddell dishing a match-high 34 assists.
Sam Flowerday led TRU with 13 kills, as he was joined on the attack with 11 kills from Matthew Hamilton. The WolfPack, however, finished the match with nine fewer kills than Alberta, and five fewer errors.
In an extremely competitive opening set, the Bears squeaked out a 25-23 win. Heslinga paced Alberta with seven kills on just 13 attempts, with the Bears as a team committing just four attack errors and three service errors, a marked improvement from yesterday’s error-filled 3-2 loss.
Flowerday led the visitor with five kills in the first, with Hamilton adding four on six swings.
Heslinga added another seven kills in the second, along with his record-breaking ace to lead Alberta to a 25-18 win. Alberta’s offence found a rhythm as the match progressed, scoring 17 kills through two sets. By comparison, the WolfPack mustered just seven kills on 29 attempts in the second set, with the Bears service game keeping their offence out of sync.
The third set saw Alberta score another 15 kills to TRU’s 13. Flowerday did his best to keep the ‘Pack alive with six kills, but was surpassed by Heslinga and Martens, who combined for 10.
Alberta will be off next weekend, while TRU will face another test in hosting the UBC Thunderbirds.
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