The University of the Fraser Valley women’s volleyball team maintained its perfect homecourt record, rallying for a five-set triumph over the Capilano Blues on Friday evening.
The Cascades won the opening set 25-22, only to watch the Blues bounce back to win the next two by matching scores of 25-20, thus pushing them to the brink.
But UFV staged a comeback of their own, winning the fourth set 25-21 and dominating the fifth 15-7. They improved to 6-1 in PacWest play, while Capilano fell to 3-2.
“It was gritty,” Cascades head coach Dennis Bokenfohr said afterward. “From being up early and looking pretty strong, to falling back in the midpoint, it takes a lot of composure not to crumble under that pressure. The girls rebounded nicely and finished strong. It was fun to watch.”
Among the standouts on Friday were Amy Davidson, who racked up 21 digs, and Nicole Blandford, who sparked the fifth-set blowout with some fantastic serving.
Blandford, who started at setter in place of the ailing Reena Randhawa, was at the service line as UFV raced out to a 5-0 lead that the Blues could never recover from, and she ended up serving for nine of the Cascades’ 15 points in the final set.
“Reena’s been sick all week – she hasn’t been going, so we knew Nicole was setting today,” Bokenfohr noted. “What we’re becoming known as is, we’re a team that has a complete team performance. And it was again the same – from different people starting to different people finding their way through the midpoint of this match, and different people finishing.
“The fifth set was all about making some pretty good serves early. That was the gap they couldn’t recover from.”
The Cascades and Blues clash again on Saturday at the Envision Athletic Centre, with the women playing at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 8 p.m.
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