The UFV Cascades dropped a three-set decision (21-25, 16-25, 13-25) to the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday in Vancouver.

With the result, the Cascades record moves to 7-12, while UBC improves to 14-5.

How it happened:
The Cascades came out strong in the front half of the first, going on a 9-2 run led by a pair of aces from Tyson Ardell, and a strong defensive front to take a four-point lead. The T-Birds, however, hit back with five unanswered points of their own, including three straight aces from Dawson Pratt. The Thunderbirds didn't relinquish the lead from there. They went up 23-18 before UFV scored three points in a row to add some tension, but a kill and then an ace from UBC ended the opening stanza at 25-21.

A kill and ace combo from Mason Greves made it 10-6 UBC in the second, followed by an Owen Lam kill to force a UFV timeout. A nice kill from Tyson Ardell stopped the T-Birds' run for the moment, but the home team kept the pressure on. An ace from Reeve Gingera put the lead up to 16-9, and the 'Birds kept the momentum going through the rest of the set to take a 2-0 overall lead.

UBC was firing to begin the third, with Pratt and Kieran Robinson-Dunning combining on a big block to make it 3-0. The lead grew to 5-0 before Jonas Van Huizen landed a kill to get his team on the board. The UBC lead grew to nine points before a kill and then an ace from Easton Sarich cut the deficit to six. That's as close as the visitors would get, however, as UBC went on another big run finished off by a kill from Lam at 25-13.

Quotable
UFV assistant coach Derek Meeuwisse

"It was a tough night. We couldn't really get into the groove of the game and we were fighting ourselves a bit in the execution of our skills, but hopefully it's a good learning opportunity and a chance to get some momentum as we try to make the playoff push."

"We're looking to just reset from tonight, and come out stronger tomorrow and have a good battle against a strong UBC team."

Notable:
Jonas Van Huizen led the way for the Cascades with an efficient 11 kills and four digs. His brother Silas Van Huizen notched 17 assists along with a pair of kills.

With two blocks in the match, Ryan Hampe needs just three more to reach 200 in his Canada West Career.

The Cascades will be gunning for a win in the rematch on Saturday night, as a victory would clinch themselves a spot in the Canada West play-in round. That match begins at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at War Memorial Gym. The game can also be seen live on Canada West TV

- with files from Jake Mcgrail / UBC Athletics -