Abbotsford, BC - The UFV Cascades women's volleyball team picked up an early season victory against conference expectations, as they battled out a 3-1 (29-27, 25-23, 13-25, 25-16) victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday at the UFV Athletic Centre.
With both teams playing their opening match of the season, the result went contrary to the Canada West coaches poll results that had the Huskies ranked amongst the top five, while the Cascades landed in eighth.
How it happened:
Saskatchewan built a 16-11 lead early in the first set, but after cutting the gap to just three incoming transfer
Evangeline Zeyha found a pair of kills to help UFV pick up a two-point lead. After the teams traded points, it would be UFV's
Mandi Feist scoring an ace to take the opening set 29-27.
The Spartans had a small lead late in the second set, but
Talia Attieh would strike back with a pair of kills from
Talia Attieh before grabbing the momentum and closing out the frame 25-23.
The third set was all Huskies from the get-go, as a kill and an ace from Ella Milne helped them jump out to a 16-7 lead. There would be not let off from there and a Rosetta Cyr kill would finish it 25-13.
The Huskies looked to be getting back into it in the fourth until a service run from Zeyha and another from
Bianca Pura put UFV up 20-13 and on match point an Attieh ace closed out the match for the Cascades.
Notable:
Attieh led the Cascades with 14 kills, three aces, and four blocks, while
Mollie English had 27 assists, and Zeyha had a team-high for aces to go with seven kills.
Cyr had a team-high 12 kills and six aces for the Huskies, while Jessica Bergstrom had five blocks.
Quotable:
UFV outside hitter
Aubrey Gingles
"It's always fun to start with a win, especially in your home opener. I'm so proud. We had a lot of people perform on the court at different key times which was really awesome. When Bianca went back to serve, it was exactly what we needed in that set to finish it."
Up Next:
The Cascades and Huskies will meet again on Saturday to close out the weekend set with first serve set for 4pm.
Keep up to date
Cascades regular season home games offer free admission for UFV students with their student card. You can keep up with all the action at gocascades.ca, or by following the UFV Cascades on social media at @ufvcascades. All Cascades regular season soccer, volleyball, and basketball games are also available to watch live and on demand at canadawest.tv.
About UFV
Located in the beautiful Fraser Valley just east of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
, the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) is a
fully accredited, public university that enrolls approximately 15,000 students per year. UFV has
campuses and locations in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, and Hope, and a growing presence in Chandigarh, India.
