The University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team came within a whisker of completing a weekend sweep of the Douglas Royals, but the nation's No. 2-ranked team managed to claw out a dramatic five-set win on Saturday afternoon in New Westminster.
 
The Cascades took two of the first three sets, and had two match points in the fifth, but the Royals fended them off and prevailed 17-25, 25-17, 17-25, 25-21, 18-16.
 
The weekend series between the two nationally ranked squads more than lived up to its billing – the No. 11 Cascades (4-4) winning in four sets on Friday in Abbotsford, and the No. 2 Royals (5-1) bouncing back to salvage the split.
 
"It's probably the best volleyball I've been a part of at UFV," Gilray enthused, reflecting on the weekend as a whole. "They (the Royals) are a very good team, and they force you to be good. We played pretty consistent volleyball this weekend, and although it would have been nice to take two, I'm not going to take anything away from our effort. That was a great team across the net, and we did some amazing things.
 
"I can't speak enough about the culture this team is creating around itself, and it's exciting to be a part of. These girls play hard for each other."
 
The Cascades picked up where they'd left off on Friday, taking the first set 25-17. They continued to cruise early in the second set, leading 8-6, but the Royals reeled off an 8-1 run and pulled away from there to square the match.
 
After another 25-17 triumph for the Cascades in the third, Douglas appeared to be well in control in the fourth, leading 20-15. UFV mounted a push to get to within 21-20, but the Royals responded with four of the next five points to force a fifth set.
 
The fifth featured enough plot twists for an entire match. Tied 4-4 early, the Cascades won an improbable point after Kim Bauder and Karissa Marazzi combined to dig and then return a right-side smash by the Royals. But they were unable to translate that into lasting momentum – the next five points went Douglas's way.
 
A couple of Bauder kills, though, trimmed the deficit to 10-9, and the Cascades surged ahead to earn match points at 14-13 and 15-14 after a pair of Amanda Matsui kills. But kills by Caet McCorkell and Kendra Potskin extended the match, and the Royals ultimately prevailed after a Bauder attack went long.
 
Matsui finished with 21 kills, Bauder had 15, and Hanna Hieltjes added 10 for UFV.
 
"A little more inconsistent than I would have liked today, with giving up long runs against," Gilray said. "That's one of the things we did better last night – we cut those runs off. A lot of it was errors on our side, and letting them get into in-system offence. They have a lot of tough hitters, and it's hard to stay in front of all of them.
 
"They played better tonight, for sure. Vania (Oliveira) had an amazing game for them – we pumped a lot of balls at her that would have been points for sure against other teams."
 
The Cascades volleyball teams are heading into a bye week, and return to action Nov. 16-17 at home vs. the Capilano Blues.