The University of the Fraser Valley men's volleyball team suffered a three-set loss on Friday to the Capilano Blues on the road to close out the fall semester.

The CCAA No. 10-ranked Blues (10-3) prevailed by set scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-21, dropping the Cascades to 5-8 in PACWEST play.

The UFV squad now heads into the Christmas break, returning Jan. 3 with a home game vs. the Douglas Royals.

"We started off slow tonight, but I commend the guys for pushing back," Cascades head coach Nathan Bennett said. "We came up short at the end, but they're starting to understand what it's going to take to beat the top teams in our league. We're going to prepare during the break to do so next term."

The Blues thoroughly dominated Friday's first set, building a 14-5 lead and cruising from there as the Cascades struggled with attack errors.

The second set was marginally better for the UFV squad, but Capilano nevertheless opened a 10-5 lead and kept them at bay the rest of the way.

The Cascades were much sharper in the third, and were within 21-20 after setter Graham Walkey found middle Jackson Obst for a kill. But the Blues were clinical from there, getting a pair of Jacob Hopkins kills and one from Leonard Tesarik to close out the match.

Landon Uy's five kills were a team-high for UFV, and Justin Peleshytyk had four. Walkey and Matt Kornelsen registered five digs apiece, and Dylan Neudorf and Shubdeep Wander each had two service aces.

Capilano setter Simon Friesen – the 2018 CCAA player of the year – racked up 35 assists, and Hopkins (12 kills) was his primary target.

"Looking back at the first term, I think we've taken advantage of some teams where we needed to due to injury which is great," said Bennett. "I think in order to do what we need to do in the second term, we have to learn a little bit more about consistency and playing at a higher level for a longer period of time."