The University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team went the distance – and then some – to secure their first victory in over a month, outlasting the College of the Rockies Avalanche in an epic five-set marathon on Friday in Cranbrook.
It was the definition of a hard-earned win, as the Cascades snapped a six-game losing streak by scores of 25-18, 19-25, 25-23, 24-26, and 28-26.
The result boosted UFV's record to 9-12, while the Avalanche fell to 9-14 on the season.
"I'm really happy that they got the taste of victory tonight, because it's been a lot of lessons learned through losses lately," UFV head coach
Janelle Rozema said of her players afterward. "Sometimes it's just nice to get that breather of feeling what a win feels like again, just to remind ourselves that what we're doing works."
UFV started strong, building an 18-14 lead in the opening set. They extended their advantage to 21-16, before closing it out 25-18.
The Avalanche pushed back in the second, building a 15-9 lead after a pair of aces by Abigail Gruenhage and despite some late resistance from the Cascades, they took it 25-19.
UFV opened up a 9-4 lead in the third, but the Avalanche caught fire, hammering 17 of the next 21 points to take a 21-13 lead. The Cascades, though, managed a massive rally.
Amanda Matsui registered three consecutive kills and
Kara Williams hit an ace to help stop the bleeding, and the visitors would knock down 12 of the last 14 points to come out on top 25-23.
The Cascades appeared poised to end the match in the fourth, grabbing a 16-12 lead after
Chelsea Kidd notched consecutive aces during a six-point service run. UFV would carry this lead to 24-20, but COTR fended off four match point attempts to even it at 24. Kills from Kaitlyn Friesen and Taylor Whittall closed out the set 26-24 for the Avalanche.
The Cascades opened the fifth hot, getting back-to-back service aces from Williams on their way to a 6-0 lead. However, COTR would not go down without a fight, evening the score 8-8 after four consecutive kills by Ecaterina Arabadji. UFV regained the advantage, 11-10, bolstered by three kills by
Kristen McBride, and would extend the lead to 14-10, but COTR – as they'd done in the fourth – managed to fend off four match points to even the set at 14. Both teams had chances to end it, but with the score tied 26-26,
Sedona Arabsky came through with a clutch kill for the Cascades, and they would finish it off via a COTR error on their 10th match point of the set, 28-26.
Kidd paced the Cascades with 16 kills and four aces, while Matsui and McBride slotted home 15 and 13 kills respectively. Arabsky picked up player of the match honours with 12 kills and a .529 hitting percentage, and Williams racked up 50 set assists and five aces.
Whittall posted a game-high 19 kills for the Avalanche, while Arabadji notched 17.
"I'm glad we got the win, but the big lesson tonight was eliminating the other team's big runs," Rozema noted afterward. "We just can't allow those runs. I think we probably could have won a little faster, in three or four sets, had we controlled their run of points a little bit better."
The Cascades volleyball teams are back in action Saturday afternoon to conclude the weekend series (women 12 p.m., men 2 p.m. Pacific time, pacwestbc.tv).
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