The UFV Cascades and CBC Bearcats will renew their rivalry this week to close out the Pacwest volleyball regular season.
The UFV men’s team has a chance to climb to third in the final standings, which would mean a first-round match against the sixth-ranked team in round one of the playoffs next weekend.
The club has a record of 13 wins and nine losses this season.
Head coach Kyle Donen said it’s a good chance for his team to become reacquainted with the CBC gym, the host of the Pacwest provincial playoffs from Feb. 25 to 27.
“We’re definitely taking that opportunity to get comfortable there,” he said.
“We just need to focus on playing the game and working to get better. We didn’t have a great weekend against Douglas last weekend, and we want to get better against CBC. That’s the most important thing for us going into playoffs.”
The CBC men’s team failed to qualify for the playoffs, and sports a record of two wins and 20 losses heading into the final weekend of the season.
The UFV women are locked into the fifth seed for the playoffs, but are hoping to snap a four-game losing skid.
“I respect this rivalry,” said Cascades women’s coach Mike Gilray. “I respect what [CBC head coach] Duncan [Harrison] does with his program, and I want to battle them. I want to go into the playoffs playing our style of volleyball, and I think we’ve gotten away from that the last few weekends.”
The CBC women have also failed to qualify for the playoffs and sit in seventh place, with a record of four wins and 18 losses.
The pair of games see the clubs play at CBC on Thursday and at UFV on Friday. Women’s games start at 6 p.m., with the men tipping off at 8 p.m.
