The top-ranked Trinity Western Spartans wrapped up a sweep of a home-and-home series with the University of the Fraser Valley men's volleyball team, prevailing in three sets on Friday evening at the Langley Events Centre.
The Spartans (14-0), coming offÂ
a three-set triumph at the UFV Athletic Centre on Thursday, won by scores of 25-18, 25-13, 25-17 in the rematch. Their strength at the service line was a factor, as they racked up 13 aces on the night.
The Cascades (0-14) get Saturday off before returning to action with a huge Sunday-Monday series vs. the UBC Okanagan Heat, with a playoff berth still within reach.
"We came out with a better effort, but they made a lot more errors," UFV head coach
Nathan Bennett said, comparing his team's Friday performance vs. TWU to Thursday's. "At the end of the day, they made mistakes, and we weren't able to capitalize on them. If you want to be good in this league, that's something you've got to learn how to do."
In the first set, the Cascades and Spartans were even early on, level at 12-12. But with TWU leading 19-17, the Spartans were able to outscore the Cascades 6-1 down the stretch to take the opening set 25-18. TWU hit .409 in the first set, while UFV hit .375.
Trinity Western raced out to an 8-2 lead in the second and continued to roll from there, leading 16-7 at the technical timeout on their way to a 25-13 win, hitting .556 along the way.
The Cascades hung tough with the Spartans in the third and were within 12-11, but TWU extended its lead to 16-12 at the break and UFV was unable to close from there as the Spartans prevailed 25-17.
Comrie Engbers led the Cascades with four kills, five digs and an ace, while
Bailey Burdick contributed four kills and one block.
Tyson Ardell also had a solid outing for the Cascades, contributing at the service line and at the net defensively. Jackson Howe and Jordan Schnitzer had nine kills apiece for the Spartans.Â
"It was great to be able to share the floor with the best team in the country four times (in conference play), and we learned a lot by playing them," Bennett said.
"We definitely weren't passing well enough tonight to get into positions to score, but it's also the mentality of our attackers – we were just looking to put the ball in play, rather than being more aggressive with it. And when you put the ball in play against a good team, they find a way to get a kill."
Up next for the Cascades volleyball teams is a series with the UBC Okanagan Heat, running Sunday (men 4 p.m., women 6 p.m.) and Monday (men 1 p.m., women 3 p.m.) at the UFV Athletic Centre. Sunday's games feature pregame senior celebrations for
Graham Walkey and
Justin Peleshytyk of the men's team, and Amanda Matsui and Sadie Wilson of the women's squad.
- with files from Scott Stewart, TWU Athletics
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