Abbotsford, BC - Nimo Benne knocked down 19 kills as the UFV Cascades pushed the U SPORTS no. 2-ranked Trinity Western Spartans to a fifth set but were unable to complete the upset falling by set scores of 29-27, 21-25, 16-25, 25-22, and 7-15.

"Tonight was a good battle between two really good teams" noted UFV head coach Nathan Bennett after the match.

"The maturity level of the other side became a little bit more prominent in the match, but I thought we put on a good show for an awesome fan base there tonight".

The teams went blow for blow in the first set, but it was the Cascades that came out on top. With the score 24-23 UFV got a kill from Benne, and a block from Caleb Kastelein to extend the set and after a TWU service error, Benne drilled home his third ace of the frame to take it 29-27.

?? MVB | A Nimo Benne ace to finish off the first set 29-27 for the Cascades!

??@goUFV 1@TWUSpartans 0#weclimbweconquer pic.twitter.com/AkMyIvNCrj
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) October 29, 2022
 

Both teams battled hard in the second set trading points, but with the score 22-21 in favour of the Spartans, they would notch the final three points of the set to win it 25-21.

Trinity Western kept rolling in the third, leaping out to a 15-5 lead. They made no mistake carrying that lead to a 25-16 set win.

A strong response from the Cascades in the fourth helped them edge out a 22-20 lead on the back of a pair of Ryan Hampe kills, and two more Benne kills helped them close it out 25-22 to force a fifth set.

?? MVB | Headed to a fifth set after the Cascades close of the fourth 25-22! ??????

??@goUFV 2@TWUSpartans 2#weclimbweconquer pic.twitter.com/tv5G2GUAw5
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) October 29, 2022
 

The Spartans leapt out to a 5-0 lead in the fifth, and that advantage proved too much to overcome as Trinity Western's Jesse Elser knocked down the final kill to finish out the match 15-7.

Benne led the Cascades with 19 kills and five aces in the match, while Jonas Van Huizen posted 41 assists and three aces of his own. 

Brodie Hofer paced the Spartans with 22 kills on the night, while Henry Rempel added 20 of his own, and Mathias Elser had 54 set assists.

"It was just the small details that made the difference at the end," noted UFV outside hitter Eduardo Ferreira, "so hopefully we'll be able to correct those for tomorrow's game".

The two teams renew acquaintances again on Saturday at 5pm at the UFV Athletic Centre. The match is also available to be watched live on canadawest.tv.