Dayton Pagliericci celebrates one of his 10 kills with teammate Nick Bruce.
The University of the Fraser Valley men’s volleyball team defeated the College of the Rockies Avalanche in four sets on Sunday afternoon, wrapping up a weekend sweep and running their win streak to three games.
Playing at Abbotsford Senior Secondary, the Cascades took the first two sets 25-19 and 25-21. The Avalanche bounced back to win the third 25-19, but the hosts controlled the fourth set and closed out the match 25-17.
The Cascades now stand at an even 5-5 in PACWEST play, good for third place, while COTR fell to 4-8.
“I’m happy to see we came out with two wins despite the challenge of playing in new gyms,” Cascades head coach Kyle Donen said. “I thought we adapted really well.
Ben Friesen hammers down one of his team-high 15 kills.
“Our offence was pretty good, but we struggled to pass. It made it a little more difficult to run the offence we were running, but when we passed well we had a good offence.”
The Cascades got off to a 5-1 lead in the first set, but Avalanche tied it up 5-5. UFV outside hitters Matt Whittall and Nick Bruce helped the hosts regain control, dominating at the net to pull the Cascades ahead 20-13 en route to victory.
In the second set, COTR outlasted UFV in the longer rallies, but Cascades captain Ben Friesen pulled his team out of a rut midway through the set and Bruce capitalized in the late stages of a 25-21 win.
Bruce and Whittall continued to thrive in the third to get the Cascades out to a 7-3 head start, but the Avalanche battled back. With the score deadlocked 19-19, COTR’s Breno Fabbri went on a service run, highlighted by back-to-back aces, to help his team extend the match.
UFV leapt ahead 7-2 in the fourth set, and while the Avalanche were able to close to within 14-12, Friesen, Whittall and Bruce were dynamic offensively as the Cascades pulled away to win.
Friesen led the offence with 15 kills followed by Dayton Pagliericci with 10 and Bruce with nine. At the service line, UFV registered four aces split between Bruce and Adam Frederickson.
The Cascades volleyball teams are off to Nanaimo next weekend to face the Vancouver Island University Mariners.
– by Raelyn O’Hara, Cascades student communications assistant
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