The UFV Cascades women’s volleyball team ended the Pacwest era with one last treasure – a conference bronze medal.
The Cascades beat the Capilano Blues 3-0 (25-15, 25-15 and 25-23) in Saturday’s third place game at Douglas College to say farewell to Pacwest competition on a high.
It marked the program’s final Pacwest game – after 18 seasons as part of B.C.’s collegiate league (1983-85, and 2004-2020), the UFV volleyball teams are moving up to Canada West/U Sports for the 2020-21 campaign.
ðŸ”ðŸWVB FINAL | That winning feeling! The Cascades take bronze 🥉 after closing out the final set 25-23 on an @amandamatsui ace!! 🔥🔥🔥🎉🎉🎉
🔠@goUFV 3
🔵 @CapilanoBlues 0#WeClimbWeConquer pic.twitter.com/nlMFOndDLx— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) February 22, 2020
“Being able to win a bronze medal match, and really decisively, I think just shows we are on an upward climb and it sets us up for moving into Canada West,” Cascades head coach Janelle Rozema stated.
“Today we were really physically strong – we were serving tougher, hitting higher, hitting harder, and digging more balls. I think it took them (Capilano) a bit by surprise and it took them a bit to adjust to that. By the third set they were starting to pick up on the new UFV volleyball that was showing itself, but by that point I think we had created so much momentum that it was just hard to stop us.
“I’m glad we finished it in that third set. Capilano is a really good team, and we had to play our best volleyball in order to get the victory we did today.”
The victory marked the fourth time UFV has claimed the Pacwest bronze medal. Most recently, they won bronze in 2018 as tournament hosts.
The women’s final saw the VIU Mariners defeat the Camosun Chargers 3-1 (25-9, 25-17, 20-25 and 25-19).
The men’s team saw a short and not so sweet end to Pacwest play, as they were bounced in the quarter-final on Thursday.
The club lost 3-0 (18-25, 21-25 and 10-25) to the Blues to end the playoff run.
“You know, we always have a dream of the Rudy scenario,” stated Cascades head coach Nathan Bennett, “But at the end of the day they (Capilano) played a better game than we did and I commend them. They did a great job.”
Bennett said he’s looking forward to joining the Canada West next season.
“It’s the end of an era,” Bennett said. “We are now officially looking forward to joining the Canada West, and the work just gets more intense from here.”
