Reading break is a time when students hope to take a break from student life and relax for the sake of benefiting their mentality. This is short-lived, though, when we discover that the break is really just a week to catch up on the assignments that have piled up, thus breaking our final straws of sanity.
This February has been one to remember. A new world order on the potential rise, the UFV women’s basketball team clinched first in their division on Feb. 24; records on the men’s basketball team were broken; Cascades fans and supports say their bittersweet good-byes to the graduating athletes at the last home games of the regular season; and the UFV men’s volleyball team finally won a game in the Canada West League, to potentially join the rest of the fall teams in the Canada West Playoffs starting this week on Thursday, with the Canada West finals yet to be determined by the end of the March.
After months of coming within a salt and pepper shake from victory, the men’s volleyball team played a five-set bout against the UBCO Heat on Feb. 20. Each team traded the lead until the fourth and fifth sets, as the Cascades’ Nimo Benne, left-side hitter, already had 20 kills and a handful of aces in the night. They scored the game-winning ace in the fifth and final set.
“It was a really great feeling,” Josh Gagnon, left sider, told The Cascade. “[I felt] like we finally had a weight off our shoulders and could play with more freedom.” The win means that because the MacEwan Griffins were not able to scrape out a win against the Calgary Dinos last week, the Cascades men’s volleyball team will join the other varsity teams in the playoffs over the weekend, in Calgary.
The men’s basketball team ended the season on a four-game losing streak, playing two rough losses for their last two home games against the UVic Vikings. The men ended with an even 9-9 record, and third in the west division. The diamond in the rough of the last few games was in the final five minutes in the last home game, on Feb 19. Vick Toor passed from the right-wing to Jordyn Sekhon, who drilled the 3-pointer that got Toor his record-breaking 307th assist in the regular season. This is a great mark and legacy to leave behind and the teammates finish their UFV basketball careers with the utmost levels of charisma and class.
It has been a great few months getting to cover the Cascades. This 2021/2022 season has had as many ups and downs and hot and cold streaks on all the teams that anyone could expect. While it has been tough on everyone, a big thank you and show of appreciation should be given to our student-athletes. They have had to work with the drama of being a regular student through COVID-19, as well as a changing and regulated athletic program, and yet they have still been going out and playing with everything they have. They’ve all played at a level that only demands greatness. To the seniors graduating, thank you and congratulations. Enjoy this well-deserved summer to relax.
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.