Fraser Valley (Jordie Arthur) – Women’s Volleyball: Spartans take three set victory over Cascades
The UFV Cascades dropped a three-set decision to the Trinity Western Spartans on Saturday evening at the UFV Athletic Centre.
The Spartans prevailed by set scores of 25-23, 25-13, and 25-19 to improve their record to 4-0 on the season, while the Cascades drop to 0-4.
“There is definitely a lot more that we can do, and I think we have a lot more to show than we did tonight” explained UFV libero Emily Matsui.
“We are all working towards an end goal, and even though the results weren’t here this weekend, we are learning things from it and using them for the future”.
The Cascades started well in the opening set grabbing a 14-11 lead, but the Spartans roared back to take a 15-14 advantage. The teams traded points to 19 apiece, and it was Savannah Purdy who knocked down four kills and an ace to give TWU a 24-21 lead. The Cascades pushed back to get within one, but the Spartans found a final kill from Ansah Odoom to take it 25-23.
Trinity Western took control in the second set, gaining a 15-7 advantage, and they would carry that through to close out the set 25-13.
The Cascades held a 17-15 lead in the third, but the Spartans found a way to fire home 10 of the next 12 points to seal the match 25-19.
Lauren Attieh led UFV Offensively on the night with 11 kills, while Gabrielle Attieh had 8, and Matsui added 13 digs.
Purdy paced the Spartans with 11 kills, five aces, and 10 digs in the match. Tamar Bil added eight kills and three aces, while Emma Gamache had a game-high 15 digs.
The Cascades will now host the Saskatchewan Huskies next week in a Friday-Saturday set, while the Spartans will play host to the Calgary Dinos.
Men’s Volleyball: Cascades drop three set decision to Spartans
The UFV Cascades fell in straight sets (23-25, 21-25, 13-25) to the Trinity Western Spartans on Saturday night at the UFV Athletic Centre.
With the win the Spartans improve to 4-0 on the year, while the Cascades drop to 1-3.
UFV got out to a strong start in the first, building a 9-6 lead, but TWU fought back to level it at 9. The teams traded blows throughout the set, but with the score level at 23 a pair of Brodie Hofer kills gave the Spartans a 25-23 set win.
The Cascades once again started strong in the second grabbing a 9-4 lead, but Trinity Western battled back yet again to even it at 14 apiece. UFV eked out a 20-18 lead, but from there the Spartans would take seven of the next eight points to close out the set 25-21.
The third set was all Spartans, as the visitors built a 19-7 advantage on their way to a 25-13 victory to seal the match.
“We couldn’t control our emotions — couldn’t control the ball. Trinity was executing on every play, and we couldn’t do the same” noted UFV outside hitter Nimo Benne about the latter sets.
“We have to take this one as a learning experience. Yesterday had a lot of positives, but today we didn’t reach our standard of how we want to play.”
Benne paced UFV with a team-high nine kills, while Tyson Ardell and Caleb Kastelein each had six.
Hofer led the way for Trinity Western on the night, posting 10 kills, and three aces, while Mathias Elser added 31 set assists and four aces.
The Cascades now have to reset, as they will face the Saskatchewan Huskies next Friday and Saturday at the UFV Athletic Centre. Meanwhile, the Spartans will host the Calgary Dinos Next week in Langley.
Men’s Soccer: Cascades season comes to an end after extra time defeat to Mount Royal
Taylor Richardson drilled home the equalizer for the UFV Cascades to force extra time, but it was the Mount Royal Cougars who came out on top 2-1 in the Canada West Quarterfinal.
Due to a women’s soccer quarter-final match taking place prior to the men’s, the start of the match was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes. Once play was able to begin, it was the Cougars who struck first in the 34th minute. Jonathan Walter found the back of the net with his in-swinging corner kick striking the post and falling directly in to give his team the lead.
UFV worked themselves back into the game, and they would get a break in the second half. MRU’s Caden Rogozinski took down Cascades attacker Taylor Richardson on the left wing in the 64th minute and picked up his second yellow card in just four minutes.
However, it took until stoppage time for the Cascades to finally breakthrough for the goal. Richardson received a ball at the top of the box and smashed a volley into the right side of the net and past a diving keeper for the equalizer.
The two teams battled back and forth in extra time, but it was Mount Royal that eventually found the winner with eight minutes remaining in the second bonus frame. Miguel Da Rocha drove into the box and picked out a pass to Josh Flaksman who took a touch and slid it into the bottom right corner of the goal.
“We talked about what we wanted to be as a team in July, and we wanted to be a team that never gives up,” explained UFV head coach Tom Lowndes. “We fight to the very last second that we’re on the field, and to see them do that today and battle right to that last second for each other — it made me immensely proud to be their coach.”
“That’s what we want UFV soccer to be about, and we’ve gone out and shown it.“
The defeat sees the Cascades’ Canada West season come to an end, while the U SPORTS no. 9 ranked Cougars will move on to play in the Canada West Final Four.
Lowndes applauded his team’s mentality after the game.
“I think we showed really good signs of maturity, and obviously the older players helped lead that, but we also forget that we had multiple players in their first-year of Canada West play, Nicolas Burret, Dulain Panditha, Carson Muter, and Ivan Mejia all in their first year playing big, big minutes.”
“We fell a little bit short, but we took the number nine team in the country to double overtime. They are a very good team, and there is no shame in losing to a very good team. “
