The UFV Cascades women’s volleyball team is flying high early into the PACWEST regular season.
The club has rolled off wins in five of their first six games, and are ranked third in the conference and seventh in the country.
The success continued over the weekend, as the club swept the Camosun Chargers (3-0 and 3-1) to close out October.
After a week off, the women return to action this weekend with games today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) against the second-ranked nationally Douglas College Royals.
With both teams carrying just one loss on their respective ledgers, this week’s results could go a long way to determining whether one (or both) of these teams secures a top-two seed in the PACWEST and the first-round playoff bye that goes with it.
“These games are definitely going to be competitive,” Cascades captain Kim 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 men have four losses sandwiched between wins in their season opener and their last game on Oct. 28.
They hope to continue that momentum out of their bye week today and tomorrow against a Douglas team that’s directly above them in the PACWEST standings.
“We had some good growth over that weekend, and we’re excited to get back onto the floor and channel that energy and mentality we had against Douglas,” Cascades head coach Kyle Donen said. “They’re a very different team than Camosun – they’ve got a different style. They’re not as big as Camosun size-wise, but they’ve got a couple guys who serve the ball pretty tough, and we’ll need to wait for our opportunity against a team with guys who do that well.”
Today’s games tips off at 6 p.m. for the women and 8 p.m. for the men, with tomorrow’s games running at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The clubs continue the homestand next week, with games against the College of the Rockies Avalanche on Nov. 18 and 19.
For more on the teams, visit ufvcascades.ca.