PACWEST Spike Night: Royals @ Cascades
A pair of one loss teams battle on Friday and Saturday
It’s been a blistering start for the Douglas Royals this season, winners of six straight matches as they go head to head this weekend with the UFV Cascades who are right on their heels.
The Royals (7-1) are coming off a huge road victory at Camosun last weekend dropping just one set over the entire trip. Their offence has been led by Caet McCorkell who has a PACWEST high 99 kills thus far and has compiled 112 offensive points. She is one of two athletes with over 100 total points. Vicki Schley and Vania Oliveira have also been solid combining for 142 kills.
On the defensive side Kendra Potskin has been a force at the net with 18 blocks and when a ball does come across the PACWEST leader in digs Claudia Cornell and her 120 digs is there to clean it up.
This weekend will be the first meeting of the season between these two schools and Royals’ head coach Jeff Ross says “This weekend will be a tough match for sure and it will definitely be a good battle to watch. UFV is well coached and have some very skilled athletes. We are still establishing our systems and continue to learn everyday but overall I feel like we are ready to piece it all together and start playing a more crisp and consistent game.”
The Cascades (5-1) on the other side have been just as good winning two in a row prior to last weekend’s bye.
Second year athlete Amanda Matsui leads the offence with 62 kills, 20 aces and 87 total offensive points. Captain Kim Bauder has been a very solid complement to Matsui with her 58 kills, 10 aces and 76 offensive points. Bauder has also played terrific defence leading her club with 69 digs in 23 sets. Karissa Marazzi has assisted with 59 digs.
“These games are definitely going to be competitive,” Bauder said. “We’re expecting them to come out full-force. Their team looks really good so far, and we’ve done lots of game-planning and video to prepare. They have a lot of new players, so there are a lot of aspects we have to learn about them. But I believe that if we play as a team and put forth our full effort, we should do well this weekend.”
The Cascades will be without head coach Mike Gilray who accepted a rare opportunity to coach at an international beach volleyball tournament in China.
Friday and Saturday on the campus of the University of the Fraser Valley the Cascades will welcome the Douglas Royals in Spike Night.