The Cascades’ women’s volleyball (WVB) team’s 10-game winning streak came to an end with a 3-2 loss against the UBCO Heat on Feb. 4. While it may be a sour note, the team’s second USPORTs season has otherwise been phenomenal. At the start of this 2022 season, the WVB team was ranked in the bottom half of the Canada West Coaches Poll at 9 out of 15 teams. This was during pre-season in October when most of the teams had yet to really gel and find their rhythms. Since then, after some tougher early season matchups, Cascades WVB has soared beyond expectations into 4th place in Canada West, securing a second straight playoff spot.
Regarding the team’s success, head coach Janelle Rozema remarked, “I think it’s been a group of women who have caught the vision of wanting to build a strong foundation of a new program and who’ve got excited about the fact that they can be the ones who define what UFV women’s volleyball is to most teams. It’s a first impression. And the athletes that ended up committing to our program were excited about making sure that that first impression is one that will/has become respected in our league.”
It’s a new program, and the team is coming into its own. They have a unique sense of play, and after losing their first four of the season, their conditioning and endurance had seen them win every contest since hosting Mount Royal on Nov. 25 until the Heat recently ended their run. This is an absolute tear for such a young program. The Cascades have only needed extra sets in two matches in that time, against the University of Alberta Pandas on Dec. 2, and the UBCO Heat on Feb. 3.
Beyond their team success in the standings, UFV has multiple athletes in the Canada West top ten leaderboards. Gabrielle Attieh and Lauren Attieh are placed first and sixth in overall kills. Gabrielle is also tenth in total digs, and first in overall total points. Emily Matsui is fourth in digs, and Mo Likeness is second in total blocks. Meanwhile Caitlin Bitter is seventh in overall assists and ninth in service aces.
“I think that’s where we owe our success to — the right key pieces and key players choosing to take a chance on a program,” said Coach Rozema on her players. “Gabrielle is obviously a really key player. She brings leadership, experience, and wisdom to the younger group.”
“When I first took over the program, there were a lot of rookies who could have played at other places but chose UFV.” Rozema continues. “Those rookies are now second and third years, are more experienced, and are performing. Yeah, Gabrielle is a weapon for us, but we have built a strong group.”
After a quick loss that split the weekend against UBCO, UFV had a weekend sweep against the 6th place University of Manitoba Bisons on Feb 10 and 11, keeping their place at 5th.
“I know this league [so] well that I’m not gonna be reactionary [to two losses] right now. I would be remiss to say that we haven’t taken a moment to be like sweet, the winning streak, but it’s not our main focus. Our focus is executing on each point, executing on each game, and taking [on] each opponent because in Canada West, at any given time, anybody can beat anybody.”
UFV Cascades Women’s Volleyball will host the Regina Cougars on Feb. 17 and 18 in Abbotsford.
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.
