Last Friday night, Nov. 2, the UFV Cascades volleyball men’s and women’s teams clashed with the Douglas Royals in what would prove to be a fun night of volleyball. Both teams battled hard but wound up with different results. The UFV women’s volleyball team completed the upset of the number two ranked Royals and did so somewhat convincingly, while the men’s volleyball team fell to the undefeated visiting team in three sets. It was up and down at times but did not disappoint, and though it may seem like the women’s team triumphed and the men’s team failed, there’s more to it than that.
The women’s team opened the night in a big way. After winning the first set by a score of 25-21, #9 Amanda Matsui seemed to get in a stride, having a big influence on the game as the Cascades took the second set 25-19. The third set started strong as well for UFV, with Matsui continuing to impact the game with her serve and hustle, and Douglas called a timeout with the score being 14-9. From there Douglas rallied back, bringing the score to 18-18 until UFV called a timeout of their own. Douglas eventually took the set 25-19 and at this point it was hard to tell whether or not Douglas was about to ride the momentum of the previous set to force a fifth set.
The Cascades, however, had other plans as they came out full speed in the fourth set and had Douglas down 10-3 when they called a timeout. After getting close, the Royals called timeout again with the score at 16-9 for the Cascades. UFV went on to win the match and complete the upset of the former PACWEST champions, and a day later lose a close five set match with Douglas as the visiting team.
The men’s team would meet Douglas in the second game of the night, and the Royals started relatively strong. After a timeout at the score of 7-12 for Douglas, UFV struggled to deal with excellent serving from Douglas and lost the set 25-18. The second set was more promising, as UFV came back after trailing 8-11 at the first timeout to hold a lead of four points (18-14) upon the Royals’ first timeout of the second set. It was a battle, with Douglas trailing by a score of 21-18 for UFV, and then UFV only leading by one after the Royals got the score to 21-20. However, it was the Royals who topped the Cascades 25-23 in the second set, leaving UFV down two sets heading into the third.
The Cascades played well at times in the third, but after Douglas lead 16-11 upon a UFV timeout, they held onto that lead for the match victory by a score of 25-20 in the third and won three sets to none. It was a tough loss for UFV, who now sport a record of 0-7. A day later they took on Douglas again in an away game, getting swept again. Douglas’s record now stands undefeated at 6-0, with UFV winless at 0-8.
After a storyline-filled weekend the Cascades now are on a bye week and will look to rebound from Saturday’s losses when they take on the Capilano Blues Nov. 16-17.
Image: UFV Cascades Twitter
