The University of the Fraser Valley volleyball teams are in the midst of a nine-game homestand, and they continue their run at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre this weekend as they welcome the Camosun Chargers.
WVB: Cascades look to bounce back after first loss
After a tough loss last Saturday, the Cascades women’s volleyball team looks to get back on track at home vs. Camosun.
Friday: Cascades (3-1, T-1st in PACWEST) vs. Camosun Chargers (0-4, T-6th in PACWEST), 6 p.m.
Saturday: Cascades vs. Chargers, 1 p.m.
Envision Financial Athletic Centre
Webcast: pacwestbc.tv
The Cascades women’s volleyballers opened the season with three consecutive wins, and were well on their way to a fourth last Saturday before hitting their first speed bump of the campaign. UFV won the first two sets against the Capilano Blues, only to watch the Blues roar back to take the next three and steal the victory.
Head coach Mike Gilray said the result has served to refocus his team.
“We had a really good talk after the game,” he said. “We talked about how we’d probably learn more from this loss at this stage of the season than we would from any of our three wins. It just shows we have to clean our game up and get better every week.”
The Chargers are still looking for their first win, and first-year head coach Brent Hall has a very youthful roster featuring eight first-year players. But Gilray noted they’ve played better than their record might indicate – two of their losses were of the five-set variety.
Players to watch: Cascades third-year left side Kim Bauder is off to a solid start to the campaign – her 2.44 kills per set lead the team and rank sixth overall in PACWEST, and her 2.75 digs per set (eighth-best in the conference) illustrate her well-rounded skillset. The Chargers’ chief offensive threat has been Stephanie Galitzine. The third-year outside hitter is seventh in PACWEST in total offence (3.06 points/set).
MVB: Cascades look to bounce back after first loss
Luciano De Gianni and the Cascades men’s volleyballers are looking to snap a three-game losing streak.
Friday: Cascades (1-3, T-5th in PACWEST) vs. Camosun Chargers (3-1, 2nd in PACWEST), 8 p.m.
Saturday: Cascades vs. Chargers, 3 p.m.
Envision Financial Athletic Centre
Webcast: pacwestbc.tv
The Cascades men’s squad comes into this weekend looking to halt a three-game losing skid, and they’re taking on a Camosun squad which is off to a solid 3-1 start.
“We definitely had a tough weekend against Cap, but we’re looking to head into our bye week on a positive note with a couple of good performances,” Cascades head coach Kyle Donen said. “We’re playing a team that we’ve had some really good battles with in recent years. We’ve had some games against Camosun that have been heavily important, and we’ve built a pretty good rivalry, and hopefully that fires us up.”
Donen has seen flashes of positive play from his squad, but consistency has been elusive.
“I just want to see us have a complete weekend,” he said. “We’ve had some spurts of really good play in the games we’ve had so far, but we haven’t done a good job of sustaining that for a full match. The goal this weekend is to be competing for entire sets, and hopefully we earn some confidence doing that.”
Players to watch: Cascades second-year middle Josh Fefchak had arguably the best game of his young career last Friday vs. Capilano. He racked up eight kills on just 11 swings with just one error, for a .636 hitting percentage. For the season, Fefchak leads the UFV squad and ranks eighth in the PACWEST in blocks (0.60 per set). For the Chargers, sophomore left side Matthew Bowers has been outstanding – he ranks eighth in the conference in both kills (2.36/set) and total offence (3.36 points/set).
Comments are closed.