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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Sunday, 05 October 2008 |
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NORTHERN SPORT CENTRETHOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY WOLFPACK
Instead, Prince George’s Spencer Reed was playing international volleyball Sunday night as a member of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. With about 800 people watching from the Northern Sport Centre bleachers, Reed left his mark on a five-set match against Sungkyunkwan University of Seoul, South Korea.
Reed’s Kamloops-based TRU club lost 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-10, but he proved himself more than capable of competing at such an elite level.
Reed is a 17-year-old who graduated one year early from PGSS because of the fact he skipped from kindergarten to Grade 2. He was TRU’s libero for the first three sets on Sunday night. As the WolfPack’s defensive specialist, he saved an SKK kill attempt in the first set, made a beautiful diving dig on a tip to the middle of the court in the second and kept an SKK serve from becoming an ace in the third. In the fourth set, he even came off the bench and served an ace of his own.
“I think it’s exceptional he can come out here in front of 700 or 800 people and perform under that type of pressure,” said TRU head coach Pat Hennelly.
“To come in (as a sub) and hit two serves, and one’s an ace, that’s probably the hardest thing to do in volleyball -- to walk on the court cold and hit your serves. I’m really happy with Spencer and I think he’s going to really make a mark in this league.”
TRU competes in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport league, the toughest one in the country. For Reed, playing in front of a hometown crowd was a thrill.
“It was an awesome feeling, just being announced to the crowd and getting out there and doing what I love to do,” he said. “I was really pleased with the amount of people who showed up and it was really fun playing against the Koreans.”
Reed was all smiles about his ace in the fourth set, which saw his club battle back from a 10-6 deficit to force the deciding set. Reed’s serve, which found the very back of the court, gave TRU a 23-15 lead.
“I guess you might call me the secret serving weapon,” he said with a laugh. “They don’t really go to me (to serve) but I like to work on the serve... in practice. In those instances when Pat gives you the nod, you go in and you’ve got to do what you do. It’s out of your element a bit as a libero but you watch a lot of serving so you know the technique and how it goes down.”
For much of the match, the teams were separated by only a point or two. The WolfPack went on a 9-4 run in the fourth set to spark the comeback. In the fifth, SKK came out that much harder to seal the victory.
SKK also beat TRU Saturday night in Quesnel. Scores were 26-28, 25-15, 25-20, 25-22.
Sunday’s match, hosted by the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club, was full of thundering kill shots from both teams. Gord Perrin, a second-year player from White Rock, led TRU with 25.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 05 October 2008 )
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