For the second straight day, the University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team polished off the College of the Rockies Avalanche in three sets at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.

The Cascades, coming off a straight-sets triumph on Saturday evening, reprised that feat in a rare 11 a.m. Sunday morning start.

Chelsea Kidd came off the bench to pace a balanced UFV attack with 11 kills, as the CCAA No. 9-ranked hosts improved to 11-5 in PACWEST play, good for third in the conference. Fifth-place COTR fell to 4-14.

Cascades head coach Mike Gilray noted that his team didn't have a great performance at the service line (15 errors against seven aces), but that their dynamic attacking "saved us."
"We were balanced," he said. "It's so hard for them to key on any one person.

"I thought we did a good job in our transition game – our middles were coming off the net so fast and being able to get their offence in that way. That just speaks volumes to us recycling the ball well. That's why our hitting percentage as a team was 37 per cent which is just huge. We really limited our errors offensively."

The Cascades continued their hot play from the night before as they leaped out to leads of 10-5 and 18-10 in the first set, before closing it out 25-12.

The second set saw the two teams trading blows early on, but strong attacking play from Lauren Poirier in the middle allowed the Cascades to pull away and take it 25-18.

The momentum stayed with UFV in the third set, allowing them to grab a 15-8 lead over the visitors. Kidd spearheaded the offence, and the hosts closed out the match 25-17.

Kidd's team-high 11 kills came on just 19 swings for a .526 hitting percentage. Left sides Kim Bauder and Amanda Matsui connected on seven kills apiece, right side Keira Fisher posted six kills, and middles Poirier and Hanna Hieltjes had five apiece.

Stephanie Demeules got the start at libero and racked up 15 digs, and Bauder had 12 digs.

Gilray was pleased that middles Poirier, Hieltjes and Alysha Cooper all got extensive playing time on the weekend and played well.

"We love our depth," he said. "It's something we've talked about with our middle group – if we want to stay healthiest and have the freshest legs going into the end of the year, we've got to use that to our advantage."

The Cascades volleyball teams hit the road next weekend to face the Vancouver Island University Mariners in Nanaimo.