Abbotsford, BC – Gabrielle Attieh posted a game-high 17 kills to help lead the Cascades to a three-set victory (25-21, 25-17, 25-21) over the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday at the UFV Athletic Centre.

The result moves both teams to 2-2 after two weeks of play in the Canada West season.  

As it happened: 
An early 10-5 lead for UFV turned into a 22-16 advantage, before the Bisons charged back to make it 22-20. However, a timeout allowed the Cascades to reset before getting an important side-out. An ace from Gabrielle Attieh, and a kill from Lauren Attieh allowed UFV to finish it off 25-21.

UFV got off to another great start in the second, taking a 10-3 lead. Despite a pushback from Manitoba, the Cascades cruised taking the set 25-17.

The Bisons flipped the script in the third, jumping out to an 11-6 advantage, but UFV stormed back to level it at 13. The Cascades weren't done there, scoring seven of the next 10 points, including a pair of Gabrielle Attieh kills to go up 20-16. However, Raya Surinx ensured the Bisons would not go quietly, as she notched three straight kills to make it 21 apiece. That was a close as the visitors would get, as UFV closed out the match with four consecutive points.

The Cascades posted nine aces and eight blocks compared to just one of each for Manitoba. UFV also hit a combined .245 opposed to .112 for the Bisons.

Top performers: 
Gabrielle Attieh's 17 kill performance went alongside two aces, and a .316 hitting percentage in the match. Lauren Attieh finished with nine kills and 12 digs, and Cailin Bitter had 33 assists for UFV.

Raya Surinx led the Bisons with 13 kills, while teammate Light Uchechukwu had 11. Julia Arnold posted 11 digs for the visitors.

Quotable:
Cascades outside hitter Lauren Attieh

"We brought the fun back after a really hard weekend last week, so it felt good to get the win yesterday and then the 3-0 win today."

"It's cool the way our league works, we faced a really good team right off the bat and I'm glad that we're going to set the rest of our season off this win against a really high-level team. We're going to recover first, and then tomorrow we're on to the next team – resetting our brains onto who our next opponent is and gearing up for that."

Up next:
The Cascades get set to host the MacEwan Griffins next week at the UFV athletics Centre. Tickets can be purchased online at gocascades.ca/tickets, and the game can also be seen live on canadawest.tv.  

The Bisons will head to Brandon for a pair of matches against the Bobcats.