The Cascades women’s volleyball team faced the Trinity Western University Spartans, the 2022 national champions and five-time Canada West Conference champs, Oct. 28-29, at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Athletic Centre. The Cascades took one set against the Spartans on Oct. 28, but lost in three on Oct. 29.
This marks the second season the Cascades women’s and men’s volleyball will be competing in the Canada West Conference of USports Canada. University sports underwent an evolution in 2016 when Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) rebranded as USports. The highly competitive conference has fourteen teams representing universities from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
After a tough weekend on Oct. 21-22, 2022 at the University of British Columbia where the Cascades lost a straight set match to the Thunderbirds, the Cascades faced another of Canada West’s elite teams. Although they fought hard and showed signs of offensive promise, losing to the Spartans leaves the Cascades looking to regroup and prepare for their next opponent, the University of Saskatchewan, Nov. 4-5.
Natalie Lemoine-Sells, a first year UFV student and outside hitter for the Cascades, spoke about this weekend’s opener, “We’re working hard every day and have big goals. There are strong teams out west and that makes us push hard. We have so much to bring against [the Spartans].”
Lemoine-Sells came to the Cascades as a top-rated high school player out of Manitoba. She had an all-star final year as captain of the Collège Jeanne-Sauvé Olympiens and played with the Manitoba provincial team when they won gold at the 2022 Canada Games.
“I wanted to come to UFV to play CanWest volleyball,” said Lemoine-Sells. “There’s always a ton of fans and it’ll be a good test for us, but we have a really strong team. We have so much to bring and can play a great game. We want people to know we feed off the energy of our fans.”
The Cascades are looking forward to building on the fan base that showed up during the pre-season and want the same intimidating home environment they see when visiting the other teams in their conference. Lemoine-Sells is confident that the athletes are setting big goals and working hard to achieve them, and so, the fan base at UFV will be rewarded when they commit to supporting the team.
Lauren Attieh, a second year student and transfer from Douglas College, looks forward to the start of the CanWest season. “We spent a lot of time in the pre-season setting up our team and how we wanted to play. I think playing the higher level USport teams, and getting pushed by them at the start of the season will set the season for us. We are wanting the win, and being a new team in the conference lets us play freely, without the pressure of higher ranked teams.”
Attieh has two sisters playing on the Cascades team with her — older, fourth-year student and outside hitter, Gabrielle Attieh, and younger, rookie outside hitter, Talia Attieh.
“We have this perfect balance of having fun with each other, but also being competitive. We’re always trying to push each other in practice. My older sister, having played at UBC for three years and then [playing] professionally for two years; it’s a really good opportunity to look up to someone and see how hard work pays off,” said Attieh.
“And to have a younger sister as well pushing me in practice. I think we have this great relationship of being thankful for being with each other when we play but not taking it for granted.”
If the energy of these two athletes, Lemoine-Sells and Attieh, is reflected throughout the women’s volleyball program, it sets a precedent for the fans and community to follow. It’s clear the University of the Fraser Valley can do a lot more to support its teams by coming out and filling the bleachers. The women’s volleyball team wants to improve and create an intimidating environment for opposing teams.
“Having our home opener weekend against such a strong team allowed us to learn to compete early on in our season. Although it didn’t transpire the way we hoped, there were many glimpses of high-level volleyball on our side [which] gave us an idea of what we need to work on to win against the top teams.”
The women’s volleyball team schedule can be found at gocascades.ca. You know what to do!
Steve is a third-year BFA creative writing/visual arts student who’s been a contributing writer, staff writer and now an editor at The Cascade. He's always found stories and adventures but now has the joy of capturing and reporting them.