The University of the Fraser Valley men's volleyball team dropped a three-set decision to the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday evening in Vancouver.
The T-Birds (1-0) prevailed by scores of 25-20, 25-12 and 25-12 at War Memorial Gym, and the Cascades (0-3) will look to bounce back on Saturday as they conclude the weekend set (6:30 p.m., CanadaWest.tv).
"We look at it as learning opportunity," Cascades assistant coach
Derek Meeuwisse said afterward. "It's an environment we haven't played in before as a team, and having a packed house at War Memorial is super exciting. The guys were energized and ready to play in this new environment, and I thought we came out really well in the first set. We had some ups and downs, but we ended up battling and getting it pretty close in the end. That was good to see.
"There's a lot of takeaways from this match. Looking at the serve-receive portion of the game, there's a lot of areas we can improve on – getting mentally prepared to see the same level of serve again tomorrow night. UBC is not going to let up at all, and we've got to be prepared for the same level of aggression off the service line, and be able to handle that as a team together.
"Every match is an opportunity for us to grow together as a team, and we're looking forward to another opportunity tomorrow."
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In the first set, the Cascades were within three points (16-13) at the technical timeout, but the T-Birds reeled off five points in a row – highlighted by a pair of aces from Michael Dowhaniuk – to go up 21-13. UFV made a run of its own, scoring five in a row including a pair of
Nimo Benne kills to cut the deficit to 21-18, but the T-Birds fended off the rally to win 25-20.
UBC built quick leads of 3-0 and 7-2 to open the second set, back-to-back aces from Matt Neaves later pushed the hosts' margin to 19-10, and they cruised from there.
The Cascades battled hard in the third, but UBC was able to open a 16-8 lead at the technical timeout, and some key blocks down the stretch helped the T-Birds close it out.
Benne (seven kills, .353 hitting percentage) and Kastelein (four kills, .429) paced the Cascades offensively, and
Jonas Van Huizen registered 18 assists.
Neaves, with 10 kills, led the T-Birds, and he and Dowhaniuk posted five aces apiece.
- with files from UBC Athletics
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