Warriors Run Over 11-2 By Wild
The West Kelowna Warriors suffered their worse loss of the season on Saturday night, dropping an 11-2 final against the Wenatchee Wild at Town Toyota Center in Washington.
The Wild opened their scoring frenzy at the 3:48 mark of the 1st period on a power play goal from Colin Burston, who doubled the Wenatchee lead at the 8:18 mark of the frame on a shorthanded goal.
On the same power play, Dakota Raabe beat Warrior netminder Nik Amundrud just 38 seconds later to extend the Wenatchee lead to 3-0.
Connor Sodergren got the Warriors on the board at the 16:18 mark of the 1st period as he was sent in alone on a breakaway from a pass by Peter Tomaras and made no mistake, beating Wild goaltender Anthony Yamnitsky for his 10th goal of the season to make it a 3-1 Wenatchee advantage.
Jacob Modry tallied his first BCHL goal for the Wild at the 17:50 mark of the period to round out the scoring in the 1st and give Wenatchee a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes.
The Warriors cut the lead to two again on a gorgeous tap-in by Matthew Campese. After a pass from Nicholas Rutigliano from the right wing side, Campese tapped it in on the glove side for his 6th goal of the season at the 4:05 mark of the 2nd period.
The Wild scored seven unanswered goals after that point, with two more in the 2nd period from Chris Jones at the 9:40 mark and Burston completing his hat trick at 10:47 of the 2nd period to give Wenatchee a 6-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Tyler Rockwell tallied just 22 seconds into the 3rd period before Matthew Baker gave Wenatchee an 8-2 lead at the 1:42 mark of the period.
Charlie Combs picked up a power play goal at the 6:50 mark of the 3rd period with Brian Williams adding a goal at the 13:12 point of the 3rd frame and Chris Jones added his second goal of the game at the 14:04 mark of the 3rd period to cap off the scoring and give Wenatchee the 11-2 victory.
The Wild scored six times on the power play out of ten tries while Anthony Yamnitsky made 19 saves on 21 shots for his 15th win of the season while Nik Amundrud started the game, stopping 35 shots on 43 shots before Shane Farkas entered the game, making 12 saves on 15 shots.
The Warriors (12-14-0-1) finish their four game road trip on Friday, December 2nd when they head to Kal Tire Place for the first time this season to face-off against the Vernon Vipers (13-12-0-3). Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the pre-game show starting at 6:50 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and hockeytv.com.
UBC Okanagan victimize Cougars for second straight three-set win
The No. 5 UBC Okanagan hit .337 as a team and the Heat won their second three-set match in as many nights over the Regina Cougars on Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Heat won by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-22 as they improve their Canada West record to 7-1 on the season.
Siobhan Fitzpatrick didn’t play on Friday, but got the start for UBC Okanagan on Saturday and led all players with 14 kills while also tying for the team lead with nine digs. Kaitlynn Given had 10 kills and hit .643 for the Heat, while Aidan Lea came off the bench to collect eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage. Michelle Jakszuk added eight kills and nine digs. Emily Oxland and Sara McCreary shared the setting duties for the Heat, with Oxland finishing with 26 assists and McCreary dishing out eight.
Freshman UBC Okanagan middle Brooklyn Reynolds earned the start on Saturday night, her first of her young career. The 6'3" Regina product graduated from Miller Composite High School which is led then a five minute drive from the CKHS highlighted the match with a block to end the first set. Reynolds also tallied her first career kill in the first set.
Ashlee Sandiford led the Cougars with eight kills and also helped out defensively with eight digs, while Leah Sywanyk got the start and had five kills and no errors for a team-leading .333 hitting percentage. Molly Wade-Cummings had seven kills and four blocks, while libero Taylor Ungar led all players with 12 digs. Rookie setter Kirstin Greve finished with 26 assists for the U of R.
After opening up Friday’s match with convincing wins in the opening two sets, it looked as though Saturday would follow the same script for UBC Okanagan as the Heat scored the first seven points of the first set and led by as many as 10 points after going up 12-2. But the Cougars battled back, going on a 10-3 run of their own to force a Heat timeout. They kept it close and four straight U of R points brought it level at 22-22 and the Cougars again tied it up at 23-23, but UBC Okanagan went ahead on a Regina service error and clinched the first set with a block by Given and Reynolds.
The second saw the teams trade leads midway through the set, but Erin Drew came in as a serving sub and the Heat broke an 18-18 tie with seven straight points, five of which came off Fitzpatrick kills.
In the third, the two teams were within two points for almost the entirety of the set with the exception of a four-point lead for UBC Okanagan around the media timeout. The Cougars fought back with five straight points to take the lead, but fell behind after a quick 4-1 run that forced a timeout by head coach Shane Smith. Consecutive kills by Kathleen Bruce and Sandiford brought the score even for the 11th time in the set at 22-22, but that’s when Jakszuk went to work for the Heat. She registered back-to-back-to-back kills, giving UBC Okanagan a 25-22 match-clinching win.
The Cougars out-served the Heat on the night nine aces to seven, the Cougars Leah Sywanyk finished with five kills. UBC Okanagan's Emily Oxland led her squad with two aces adding to her Canada West record, she now has 142 aces in her career.
The Cougars are back in action next weekend at Alberta, while UBC Okanagan will host Calgary as both teams close out the first half of the Canada West schedule.
First serve versus Calgary at UBC Okanagan is at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 2. The last match for UBCO of 2016 will begin on Saturday (Dec. 3) at 5 p.m.
UBC Okanagan log second straight road win
On the road the UBC Okanagan Heat spotted the University of Regina’s men’s volleyball team the opening set on Saturday, only to come back and win the next three in a Canada West match at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
UBC Okanagan’s middle attack was working all night long for the Heat, as Joshua Harvey and Alex Swiatlowski both had big matches. Harvey put down 11 kills and hit .600, while Swiatlowski had kills on nine of his 10 attacks to finish with a match-leading .900 hitting percentage. Harvey added nine blocks in the win – four of which were of the solo variety – to help the Heat improve to 3-5 on the season.
Lars Bornemann had a match-high 13 kills for UBC Okanagan, while Kyle Hinchey added 11 kills and eight digs. Jon Russo collected 45 assists and six digs, while libero Eli Risso led all players with 13 digs.
Brennan Goski’s six kills led the Cougars to a 25-21 win in the first set, but it was all UBC Okanagan from there. The Heat never trailed in a second set which they won by a 25-18 margin, then hit .455 as a team in the final two sets as they came up with 25-16 and 25-19 wins to clinch their second win in as many nights over the Cougars.
The bright spot for the Cougars was the play of rookie outside hitter P.J. Seekings, who came into the game in the second set and put down 11 kills on just 17 attacks and finished with a .471 hitting percentage. Cody Caldwell also had a strong match with eight kills while hitting .600, and setter Michael Corrigan fell just short of a double-double with 42 assists and a team-leading nine digs.
Both teams will close out the first half of the conference schedule with two matches against ranked teams next weekend. The Cougars (0-8) will play at No. 4-ranked Alberta, while UBC Okanagan will host No. 9 Calgary.
The final matches at UBC Okanagan in the calendar year versus the Dinos will take place this upcoming Friday - Saturday. The first serve on December 2nd is at 8 p.m. and an hour earlier on the 3rd 7 p.m.
Sputtering second half offense dooms UBC Okanagan
After the heartbreaking loss on Friday night the visiting UBC Okanagan men's basketball team struggled in the second half and allowed a tie game at the break turn into a 68-53 loss at the hands of the hometown Thompson Rivers WolfPack.
Shooting just 5-24 in the final 20 minutes allowed TRU to wear down a solid UBC Okanagan defensive effort on the Warner Rentals Court on Saturday night at the Tournament Capital Centre and send UBCO to their seventh straight defeat. Tied at 32 at the half the 'Pack only shot 15-39 (38.5%) themselves in the second half. Both teams stunk from three with the home team hitting one more then UBCO (2-12 versus 1-9). It was rebounding and second chance points that pushed TRU past the Heat.
Tipping point in the match was the edge on the glass. The much bigger TRU team out rebounded UBCO 53-39 and had 21 second chance points, compared to just eight from UBC Okanagan. Undersized normally the Heat were also missing David Manshrek a top rebounder and interior defender, and 6'9" post Ryan Morck this past weekend.
Offensively Mitch Goodwin led the way for the Heat with 19 points and a team-high share with six rebounds. Austin Penrose and Spencer Thomas both had six boards also while Penrose added 10 points. Goodwin unable to get the jumper to fall attacked the rim and did nearly half of his damage from the charity stripe. He finished nine of 10.
First year players were notable for the Heat on the night. Kelowna Owls Nav Sandhu and Matt Lafontaine each logged minutes, Nav finished with a career best eight points, Lafontaine who hit for six on Friday, his best in Canada West so far this season, added five on Saturday.
Kamloops product Justin Melnychuk saw action in his home town, his first of the season. Triston Matthews the other freshman also fared well scoring late himself.
Size was hard to defend for UBC Okanagan as 6'7" Volodymyr Iegorov put up All-Star numbers on Saturday night for TRU. The 2015-16 Canada West men’s basketball third team All-Star finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists. 6'5" post Joe Davis scored 19 points and hauled in eight rebounds and both Luke Morris and Mike Rouault just missed double-doubles for the 'Pack. The 6'5" Rouault with eight rebounds and eight points while 6'4" Morris had seven points and nine rebounds.
The loss has earned the TRU men's teams the victory in the annual Presidents' Cup Challenge between the schools winning (4-0). With just volleyball left to play to play there is no way for the Heat to catch the 'Pack. This is the 11th straight year TRU has claimed the men's portion of the competition. This year on the women's side the Heat have a (3-1) lead. The challenge between the school's dates back to 1993 and was issued in the spirit of friendly athletic competition to encourage excellence in performance, sportsmanship and friendship among the students, faculty and staff of the two institutions.
Split weekend in Kamloops after seven point loss to 'Pack
The WolfPack had a strong fourth quarter, outscoring the Heat 17-13 en route to the victory. Emily Vilac (3rd year, forward, Kamloops, BC) had her best Canada West performance: 17 points and six rebounds for TRU. The Pack had four players in double figures. Vilac, Emily Piggin (14), Michelle Bos (14), and Shenise Sigsworth (10)
Emily Kanester (5th year, guard, Vernon, BC) and Jordan Korol (2nd year, forward, Coldstream, BC) each had 13 points for UBCO. Korol finished with a double-double as she hauled in 12 rebounds, her fourth straight game where she reached double digits on the glass.
In the Friday night game both teams struggled from the field shooting under 30-percent, with the Heat snatching the win using the long ball (8-23). Tonight both teams shot better from the field and both hit 23 field goals, TRU was decidedly more efficient (23-57) compared to UBCO's (23-71), but once again the game was decided by the team who converted the most shots from long distance. UBCO managed to hit just 13-percent of their three-pointers (3-23) compared to the 'Pack converted 41-percent (9-22).
Although it was a 17-13 advantage in the fourth quarter for TRU that sealed the loss for the Heat, both teams played the second half even, UBCO only trailed by three going in to the fourth after outscoring their hosts 17-13 in the third. UBC Okanagan continue to play tight games and have played eight Canada West games on the year, five of them have been within three points after 30 minutes of play.
After a strong first quarter it was the second quarter that was the ultimate undoing of the Heat. The Kelowna team built a five point lead (19-14) after the first ten minutes and then shot (5-19) in the second quarter managing just 11 points to trail (37-30) at the half. Korol and Kanester both had seven of their 13 in the first half to lead UBC Okanagan. Vilac and Bos both ad two threes at at the half for TRU.
Rebounding between the teams was nearly even with TRU holding a one rebound edge (46-45), UBCO turned the ball over less (20-14) in the 40 minutes.
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