Avalanche topple Cascades in four sets

The University of the Fraser Valley men’s volleyball team dropped the first game of its weekend series vs. the College of the Rockies Avalanche, falling in four sets on Friday evening in Cranbrook.

The Avalanche prevailed by scores of 25-21, 25-16, 21-25, 25-23 to improve to 4-3 in PACWEST play. The CCAA No. 14-ranked Cascades are 4-5.

“We couldn’t pass the ball tonight, that was our biggest struggle,” UFV head coach Kyle Donen analyzed. “Our first contact was a struggle for us, and that kind of set the tone and made it difficult for us to run the offence we want to run. When you can’t pass the ball, it makes your offence predictable.

“They beat us in the passing game, and they beat us in the serve and block game, which are things that we usually do very well.”

Donen lauded the play of a pair of rookies – setter Dan Tang and middle Connor Prium – but noted that his team has room for improvement in Saturday’s rematch. That game goes at 3 p.m. Mountain time and can be viewed at pacwestbc.tv.

“We know it’s a difficult trip – we all anticipated it to be that,” Donen said. “It just didn’t happen for us tonight. We know we can be better, and we know we’ll be better tomorrow. We want to go home with a split.”

Dan Kinvig,  UFV Communications Coordinator