The first weekend of March kicked off the beginning of the Canada West playoffs. The truest test of endurance and power, it combines everything that the teams have learned through the 2021/2022 season. Forgetting past troubles and woes, the teams must focus on extending their seasons in order to hoist a really slick trophy and add a banner to the home gym wall. But these hopes and dreams were quickly dashed away as almost all of the Cascades teams lost in the opening playoff weekend, with only the women’s volleyball team managing to eke out a win in their first-ever playoff appearance.
The women’s volleyball team’s first game was against first-place TWU on Mar. 3, losing 3-0. This dropped the team into the lower bracket before facing the Brandon Bobcats on Mar. 4. The win against the Bobcats moved them onto their third and final game on Mar. 5, in which they lost 3-1 against the Calgary Dinos.
The men’s volleyball team racked up a trio of losses over the weekend. With a lower position in the playoff brackets, they faced tough teams against the Alberta Golden Bears, UBC Thunderbirds, and finally Saskatchewan Huskies.
A strange twist of fate was dealt with both the Cascades men’s and women’s basketball teams as both teams entered their respective playoffs against the Winnipeg Wesmen, and both lost to the Manitoba teams.
The Cascades men’s basketball team played against the Winnipeg Wesmen on Mar. 4 in the second round of the playoffs. The Cascades led most of the game, as much as 16 points late into the game, but the Wesmen were able to battle, adapt, and overcome in a respectable comeback that ended the game 83 -79, bringing an end to the Cascades’ Canada West run.
The women’s first and only game of the weekend ended in a loss against their iteration of the Winnipeg Wesmen. Even with a career-high 31 points from Maddy Gobeil, the second-highest scorer for the Cascades in the game was Julia Tuchscherer, with 16 points by the game’s end. It was an odd game to watch, as the normally defensively-dominant Cascades women were outscored three out of four quarters and connected on just over 40 per cent of their field goal attempts.
It was a disappointing playoff weekend for the varsity teams, but one that can lead to a good build for next season. The playoff visits for both teams are a good start for UFV’s future opportunities to sign players to the growing teams. It gives the younger players a chance to see the physical and mental game that is required to continue on in that setting, as well as learn to never underestimate a lower bracket team, as the do-or-die nature of the playoffs often ignites a special kind of fire that pushes teams to another level of play.
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.
