KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack men’s volleyball team hung tough early with the U SPORTS No. 3 ranked Alberta Golden Bears in a 3-0 (30-28, 25-15, 25-20) defeat on Friday, October 30th, 2026.
The first set was a battle to set the tone for the rest of the match, with the two programs trading control. Eventually the Bears earned some breathing room on the back of Jacob Sargent who converted seven kills to pace the visitors from Alberta. A late ace from Daniel Hitchens cut the deficit to 24-23, before a mishit by the Bears made it all even at 24-24 in front of a raucous crowd at the Tournament Capital Centre. Soon it was 25-25. Then a massive kill by Mostafa Tayea made it 26-26, as both sides worked for a late advantage. Finally, the number-three ranked team in U SPORTS took the opening stanza 30-28, as the Bears took a 1-0 lead in the match.
Alberta came out in the second looking to control the battle at the net, stretching an early advantage to 7-3. The two teams combined for four service errors in a row, with the ‘Pack limiting their own opportunity to climb back into the set. Luke Weddell’s second ace made it a 12-6 score, forcing Thompson Rivers to call a timeout. A series of hitting errors by the Pack helped the Bears stretch their lead to 20-11, as Alberta started to eye a 2-0 advantage in enemy territory. A massive crosscourt kill by Carter Lake ignited the Kamloops crowd, but it was Alberta who used a pair of Trent Cherewaty aces to finish off a clean set by a 25-16 margin.
The ‘Pack showed their mettle in set three, matching ace-for-ace and kill-for-kill, throwing everything at the Bears in an attempt to claw back into the match. Every time Alberta gained an advantage, TRU leaned on the home crowd and chipped away, eventually cutting the deficit to 23-20. That was as close as they would come, before U of A closed the door to secure the victory.
QUOTABLE (WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly)
“The first set we unfortunately had a bunch of float serves not hit the court, but we made a great comeback, we looked engaged and were good offensively. We really struggled handling their service pressure for most of the game – which credit to Alberta they came on the road and out-served us in our gym. Overall, the first and third set had some good things.”
ON WHAT WAS WORKING IN FIRST SET “I thought we had a good stand of transition balls. Mostafa Tayea was hitting well, Elliott Rourke was hitting well, Alex Howard was hitting but unfortunately when your passing isn’t great and your service pressure isn’t great, you struggle to get some stops. We actually got out sideout game going and stabilized our passing which is great to see.”
“I thought Elliott Rourke as a first year guy had a really good game, with good body language and composure which is something we are battling with as a team right now.
UP NEXT
With the victory, Alberta begins the season 1-0, while TRU slides to 0-3. The WolfPack will seek their first victory of the young Canada West campaign in a rematch between these two teams on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. inside the TCC.