Coming off a historic victory on Friday, the University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team came up short in their attempt at a weekend sweep, suffering a three-set road loss to the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday evening.
The Cascades (1-3) had
stunned the T-Birds (1-1) in four sets in their home opener, but the hosts turned in a tidier performance in the rematch, winning by scores of 25-18, 25-14 and 25-22 at War Memorial Gym.
"They made a lot fewer errors today, forcing us to have to earn our points, and we lost our game plan a little bit with that pressure," Cascades head coach
Janelle Rozema analyzed afterward. "Our athletes talked a little bit afterward about how, now that they we know we can win at this level, there's a little more pressure, and they didn't think they did a good job handling that tonight. They now have experience handling that, and with experience you get better. I'm hoping that now when we feel that pressure, we'll find a way to perform."
In the first set, the Cascades battled UBC to an early stalemate at 12-12, but the hosts caught fire at that point, scoring six straight points highlighted by a pair of Cara Kovacs blocks, and they kept UFV at bay from there.
The second set played out in similar fashion – UFV was level at 7-7, but the Thunderbirds steadily pulled away, ultimately opening a 20-10 advantage which proved insurmountable for the visitors.
There was little separating the two teams in a tight third set, and UFV's
Sadie Wilson served up an ace for a two-point edge that gave the Cascades a 16-14 lead at the technical timeout. The T-Birds fought back and took the lead with a Kovacs kill at 18-17, and they were clinical inside of 20 points, with a Trinity Solecki ace, another Kovacs kill, and a Claire Cossarini kill to end it.
"UBC made fewer errors, but we didn't serve as tough and didn't pass as well as last night," Rozema said. "That's the basics of volleyball right there. Serve and pass, it's like peanut butter and jelly. We weren't as good in those areas tonight."
Grace Warkentin tallied eight kills for UFV, Wilson had six kills with eight digs, and
Kristen McBride had five kills. Setter
Cailin Bitter had 17 assists.
Kovacs had a team-high 13 kills for the T-Birds to go along with two aces and seven digs, and Courtney Hillier put up 12 kills and seven digs.
The Cascades now head into a bye week before returning to action with their long-awaited Canada West home openers, Nov. 26-27 vs. Thompson Rivers.
"I think it's a great time for us to take a breath and get healthy, and take a mental break too," Rozema said. "The mental toll it took on our athletes last night to play that clean of a strategic match was exhausting for them, and we just couldn't execute game plan today – we were just tired. We'll work on our physical shape and adding things to our game, but also giving our minds a break and getting healthy."
- with files from UBC Athletics
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