The Douglas College Royals men's and women's volleyball team split back to back games with the University of Fraser Valley Cascades last week, beating UFV on the road but falling short their home court.
The women's matchup on Saturday was a back and forth contest as neither team won a set by more than 3 points through the first four sets.
Douglas took sets one and three and were poised to finish the game in the fourth, up 21-19 after a spike from fourth year middle blocker Samantha Dodds. The Cascades regrouped and rallied back however and won the fourth set to send the game to a fifth set tiebreak.
Carrying the momentum from the previous set, UFV jumped out to an early 8-1 lead catching the Royals on shaky legs. Despite valiant efforts from Trisha He, Emma Schill and Jacey Neid, the lead proved to be too much for the group to overcome.
That would prove to be too much for the Royals to overcome as the Cascades took set number five 15-6 to win the game 3-2.
The men's game would see the Royals at an immediate disadvantage as heavy hitters Reid Mariott and Max Harronga would be out of the line-up due to injury and a flu bug. The Cascades would take advantage of the missing firepower and although a close fight, take the game in 4 sets. A bright spot was rookie outside Matt Shand who picked up a season-high eighteen kills in the match.
This loss snapped the men's nine game winning streak and when talking about the loss head coach Jay Tremonti said:
"As much as this obviously stings right now and guys are walking out of the gym without a great feeling, I think that this is a great learning experience and we're gonna get better from it."
The men's volleyball team caps off the semester remaining atop of the PACWEST standings with a 9-2 record, while the women sit at fourth with a record of 5-6.
The Royals will meet the Cascades again in the new year as they open up the winter semester home schedule on January 4th, 2020.
