An explosive performance from
Amanda Matsui helped the University of the Fraser Valley women's volleyball team complete a season sweep of the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Saturday afternoon in Abbotsford.
The Cascades' fourth-year outside hitter was unstoppable at times, racking up a game-high 26 kills in highly efficient fashion (.396 hitting percentage) as UFV outlasted the WolfPack in five sets (20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-27, 15-4) onÂ
You Can Play / Pride night.
The victory – the Cascades' fourth in a row vs. TRU – allowed them to reach the .500 mark at 5-5 in Canada West play. The WolfPack fall to 1-11.Â
"We expected Thompson Rivers to play better today, and they did play better," said UFV head coach
Janelle Rozema, whose team was coming offÂ
a four-set win over the WolfPack on Friday. "But we talked about embracing them playing better, because we're preparing for playoffs. We want teams to play well against us and make us have to find solutions. I think Thompson Rivers did that. I obviously believe they would have done it more towards the end without the injury that they sustained, but it was still a good experience for us."
The first set was closely contested with the Cascades and WolfPack going point-for-point for the most part, but TRU scored the last four points to take it 25-20. Seray Altay wrapped it up with consecutive kills.
In the second, the WolfPack built a 19-17 lead, but UFV rookie middle
Mo Likness flipped the momentum at the service line. She reeled off three aces in quick succession, with Matsui contributing a kill and
Alicja Hardy-Francis a block as the Cascades scored five straight points to go up 22-19. Matsui was dominant in the second set, hammering down nine kills.
The Cascades led 15-12 in the third, but TRU's Anastasiia Muzyka went on a service run to lift her team to a 16-15 advantage. But with
Sadie Wilson (four kills in the set) and Matsui (five) cooking, the Cascades were able to surge ahead inside of 20 points, and Matsui closed out the set 25-23 with a clutch swing down the line from the right side.
In the fourth, the WolfPack built a 15-11 lead, but the Cascades stitched together four straight points capped by a deft dump from setter
Cailin Bitter to get back to even terms. TRU surged ahead once again, going up 21-17 after back-to-back blocks, but UFV would stave off three set points before TRU's Sasha Haldane ended it 27-25 with an ace. The WolfPack did a better job defensively against Matsui in the set, limiting her to three kills on 14 swings.
The WolfPack suffered a blow early in the fifth when star setter Muzyka departed with an apparent hand injury. UFV, meanwhile, had Matsui rolling once again – she hammered down four kills as the hosts took an insurmountable 10-1 lead, and she finished with seven in the set.
"Yesterday Amanda was fighting it a little bit, and today she found her stride," Rozema said. "That's a tough thing for an athlete to do, especially when the only conversation on the other side of the net is about you. To find a way to perform when teams are thinking about you that much is important. Today she really let it roll."
Sadie Wilson (nine kills), Likness (eight) and
Kristen McBride (seven) helped balance out UFV's attack, and Bitter racked up 47 assists. Matsui, Wilson and McBride tied for team-high honours with 11 digs apiece, and Likness finished with five aces.
Altay (13 kills) and Brooklyn Olfert (12) led the TRU offence, and Muzyka posted 28 assists and 16 digs.
The Cascades women's volleyball team returns to action next week with a Friday-Saturday homecourt series vs. the UBC Thunderbirds.
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