The University of the Fraser Valley men's volleyball team battled hard, but fell in four sets to the Douglas Royals on Friday evening at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.

The CCAA No. 3-ranked Royals prevailed 25-21, 19-25, 25-22, 25-22 in improving their PACWEST-leading record to 9-1 on the year, while the Cascades fell to 4-7.

The two teams close out the home-and-home set on Saturday night on Douglas's campus in New Westminster (7 p.m. pacwestbc.tv).

"We had our chances, I really did," UFV head coach Nathan Bennett said afterward, alluding to close calls the Cascades had in the third and fourth sets. "I thought the guys played well at times. It's consistency. We have our chances – I basically said in one of the timeouts, 'We have to put the gun away. We keep using it to shoot ourselves in the foot.'

"This is the cream of the crop in the league, and if we can compete with these guys, we can compete with anybody and we can beat any team in this league. But we have to play to a level, and we have to be consistent at that level."

The Cascades got off to an inauspicious start, as the visitors leapt out to a commanding 10-1 lead bolstered by four consecutive aces by Matt Shand. The Cascades chipped away at the deficit and, led by Landon Uy who racked up five kills in the set, they cut it to 21-16. Two quick kills by Caleb Kastelein helped them pull even closer to 21-20. However, it was not enough as the Royals pulled away to take it 25-21, closing it out on yet another Shand ace.

The Cascades jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second behind Justin Peleshytyk, who registered a kill and an ace. They extended that advantage to 18-12 in the middle part of the set, and although the Royals would close the gap to 20-18, the hosts gained full control as a three-point serving run by Peleshytyk took the score to 24-18, allowing UFV to finish it off 25-19.

The Cascades took a 6-3 lead in the third after an Andy Barrero ace, but the Royals scored six of the next eight points, capped by a Greg Moore ace, to take a 9-8 lead. The teams traded blows in the middle portion of the set, but Douglas surged ahead to snatch a 23-19 lead, and despite back-to-back kills by Peleshytyk, the Royals wrapped up the set 25-22.

Both teams struggled to gain momentum in the fourth as they traded points early on, but with the score 19-17 for the Royals, Matt Shand came alive registering back-to-back kills to make it 21-17. Kills by Uy and Kastelein helped bring UFV within one to 21-20, but that would be as close as they would get, as Douglas built a 24-22 advantage before capping off the match with a Rajan Gill ace, 25-22.

Uy paced the Cascades with 19 kills and two aces in the match, while Peleshytyk picked up nine kills of his own. Matt Shand racked up 14 kills and five aces to lead the Royals, and teammate Ben Shand chipped in 10 kills of his own.