The University of the Fraser Valley men's volleyball team earned its initial win of the season in thrilling fashion on Friday evening, edging their crosstown rival Columbia Bible College Bearcats in five sets.
Playing before a raucous crowd in the Envision Financial Athletic Centre's North Gym, the Cascades and Bearcats engaged in a roller-coaster affair that saw UFV seize the victory by scores of 19-25, 25-16, 25-22, 23-25 and 15-10.
The Cascades (1-10) and Bearcats (0-11) wrap up the home-and-home weekend set at Columbia Place on Saturday (7 p.m., pacwestbc.tv).
"It feels good to get the win," UFV bench boss
Kyle Donen noted with a smile. "It was a bit of a roller-coaster – both teams showed some inconsistencies, but both teams, I thought, showed some really good play at times too. I would have liked to see us sustain a little more consistency, but I think we came out with our best stuff at the right times
.
"The goal was to protect home court first, and now we've got to go into hostile territory and get one more to finish the semester off strong. That's the goal for tomorrow night."
Friday's wild first set was a preview of what was to come. The Cascades raced out to a 15-8 lead following a five-point service run from
Jackson Obst, but the Bearcats answered with a four-point run with Graham Walkey at the service line to get back into it, and they pulled away to take it 25-19.
UFV bounced back to take the second set in decisive fashion, and clawed out a 25-22 triumph in the third capped by an
Ian Jagersma kill. The hosts appeared poised to finish things off in the fourth, leading 9-4 early and 21-19 later on, but CBC finished strong, scoring four of the last five points of the set to take it 25-23 and extend the match.
In the fifth, the Cascades built a 5-1 lead behind a trio of Jagersma kills, and while the Bearcats were able to get back to within two points, UFV kept them at bay and wrapped up the win on a kill by captain
Ben Friesen.
Afterward, Donen noted that the energy from the crowd in the smaller North Gym seemed to "provide a bit of a spark for both teams."
"Usually games against CBC are like that, and the added feature of playing in the smaller gym – a lot of our guys were really excited to play there," he said. "They thrive off the energy that comes from playing in there.
"For two teams who haven't had the semester they wanted, I think a lot of good, positive things came out of the game for both sides."
Friesen led the Cascades with 16 kills,
Graeme Hughes racked up 13 kills with a .400 hitting percentage, and
Justin Peleshytyk had nine kills. UFV's young middles also came up big with starter
Josh Fefchak sidelined due to illness. Jagersma finished with nine kills, and
Jackson Obst had three kills and two solo blocks. Setter
Bobby Blaskovits posted 27 assists.
Jackson Kathler (16 kills) and Jacob Molitwenik (14 kills) led the Bearcats' attack.
