The UFV Cascades men's volleyball team opened their 2025-26 campaign with a straight sets loss to the Trinity Western Spartans, 14-25, 21-25, 21-25, on Thursday at the UFV Athletic Centre.

TWU moves to 1-0 with the win, while UFV starts the year at 0-1.

How it happened:
An early 13-4 lead for TWU allowed them to cruise to an early set win, 25-14. 

The Cascades bounced back in the second, with back-to-back Kian Bos giving them a 12-8 lead. A Liam Remple kill brought TWU back within striking distance at 17-16, before three straight Kaden Shmidt kills gave them a 19-17 lead. The Spartans went on to pick up the final four points of the set to take it 25-21.

The teams battled to 7-7, before the Spartans found a slight edge at 10-7 after a pair of UFV errors. They traded points to 23-21, before TWU knocked down the last two points to close it out, 25-21. 

Notable:
Roan McCarthy had a team-high 13 kills, to go along with an ace and three blocks for UFV. Setter Silas Van Huizen posted 23 assists.

UFV rookie libero Yahia Elsayed had a team-high six digs, while fellow first-year Matthew Liboiron posted two kills, two digs, and a block.

Schmidt had a game-high 17 kills for TWU on the night.

Up next:
The two teams meet up once again on Friday at the Langley Events Centre, with the first serve set for 7pm PT. The match can also be seen live on Canada West TV.

To keep up with all the action follow the Cascades on social media at @ufvcascades, and visit the UFV Athletics website at gocascades.ca.