Saturday, Jan. 19: No. 9 Cascades (9-5, 3rd in PACWEST) vs. College of the Rockies Avalanche (3-11, T-5th in PACWEST), 5 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 20: Cascades vs. Avalanche, 11 a.m.
Envision Financial Athletic Centre
Webcast: pacwestbc.tv

The Cascades and Avalanche met back on Oct. 19-20 in Cranbrook, with UFV winning the opener 3-1 and sweeping COTR 3-0 the next day.

If the hosts are to achieve similar results, they can draw inspiration from last Saturday's showing vs. the Camosun Chargers. After dropping a five-set decision the night before, the Cascades put together what head coach Mike Gilray deemed their most balanced performance in a three-set sweep.

"We'll be fresher, but they'll be in a bit of a rhythm," Gilray said, looking ahead to the COTR match-up and noting the Avalanche's grueling schedule this week.

"I think the big message for us is about managing our side and playing to our strengths. We have a real strong offensive team where if we're balanced, we're hard to stop. When we're recycling and forcing teams to beat us and allowing our defence to help our transition offence, we're at our best. That's what we saw last Saturday against Camosun, and that's the type of performance we're hoping to have against COTR."

Players to watch: Cascades sophomore left side Amanda Matsui is the reigning PACWEST women's volleyball player of the week, after racking up a combined 29 kills and 26 digs over two matches vs. Camosun. She was also named one of five CCAA female athletes of the week for her efforts. The Port Coquitlam product is second in the conference in total offence, generating 3.80 points/set, and she's also among the leaders in kills (second, 3.29/set), digs (sixth, 2.71/set) and aces (14th, 0.37/set). The Avalanche's chief offensive threat this season has been sophomore Taylor Whittall, whose brother Matt plays for the Cascades men's team. She's top-10 in the PACWEST in both kills (eighth, 2.30/set) and total offence (10th, 2.82/set).