The University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team was unable to overcome a slow start, falling in straight sets to the Vancouver Island University Mariners on Friday.

The match was delayed by two hours due to poor weather affecting the visitors' travel plans, and when it finally commenced, the CCAA No. 1-ranked Mariners (13-0) knocked off the No. 10 Cascades (8-8) by set scores of 25-8, 25-19 and 25-22 at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.

"We played long rallies with them, and we did some good things," Cascades head coach Janelle Rozema analyzed afterward. "But at the end of long rallies, they were the ones to finish them.

"As the game went on we found more ways to finish rallies, but they're the best team in the country for a reason. They have more than one attacker who make us have to work really hard. They have multiple threats. What we're trying to embrace is, that's the name of the game in Canada West. Playing a team like VIU is preparing us for the future. Obviously we always play to win, but the value of tonight was learning to play top-level volleyball against a top-level team."

Unfazed by the delay, VIU jumped out to an early 8-2 advantage in the first set before extending it to 15-8. From there, a nine-point service run by Shelby Dorman-Banks allowed them to close it out in commanding fashion, 25-8.

The Cascades built an 11-7 lead in the second, but the Mariners would rally to snag a 16-14 advantage. A kill and a block by the Cascades' Alysha Cooper drew the teams even once again, but a pair of kills by VIU's Danielle Groenendijk and an ace by Dorman-Banks would help propel them to a 23-18 lead, and they finished it off 25-19.

The teams traded points early in the third, but with the score at 3-3 the Mariners would score the next four points to take a 7-3 lead. With the score at 8-5, VIU's Andrea Cankovic rattled off a nine-point service run that included three aces, to make it 17-5. The Cascades would close the deficit to 23-20 after securing timely kills by Chelsea Kidd, Amanda Matsui and Kristen McBride, but it was not enough as the Mariners closed out the match 25-22. 

Matsui paced the Cascades with 11 kills and two aces, while McBride added nine kills. Kara Williams notched 21 set assists on the night. 

The two teams renew hostilities Saturday afternoon at the EFAC (1 p.m., pacwestbc.tv).