Cougars push No. 5 UFV to four, but lose 3-1 to Cascades

QUICKLY
The University of Regina’s women’s volleyball team pushed No. 5-ranked Fraser Valley to a fourth set, but lost 3-1 to the Cascades on Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport on the U of R campus.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first two sets were all Fraser Valley. The Cascades hit .421 as a team in a 25-14 win in the opening set, then hit .344 while winning the second by a 25-15 margin.
• Fraser Valley looked to be on its way to a three-set sweep after a Mandi Feist kill put the visitors up 23-18, but the Cougars rallied in a big way. Reese Evjen put down a kill, combined with Zoey Thompson on a block, and then got another kill to jump-start a 6-0 run for Regina. The Cougars weren’t able to convert with a 24-23 lead, managed to evade a UFV set point at 25-24, and finally ended the set on their fifth attempt at set point when a Cascades attack error gave Regina a 30-28 victory.
• Fraser Valley recovered from the third-set setback by holding Regina to a negative hitting percentage in the fourth, which they won 25-19 to clinch their second win over the Cougars in as many nights.

NOTES

• U of R rookie middle Zoey Thompson tied the school record for blocks in a Canada West match with 12, equalling the total put up by Michelle Sweeting at UBC Okanagan back on Jan. 27, 2012. Thompson’s total of 12 blocks is a school record for a four-set match, breaking the old mark of 11 (Molly Wade-Cummings against Winnipeg on Jan. 20, 2017).
• Fraser Valley (14-2) continues to occupy first place in the Canada West standings. UBC also has a 14-2 record, but UFV currently holds the points tiebreaker.
• Talia Attieh had 18 kills and hit .333 for UFV, while Feist finished with 16 kills and a .314 hitting percentage. Lauren Attieh chipped in with 14 kills.
• Devyn Grimsrud was honoured prior to Saturday’s match as part of Senior Night and had a team-leading nine kills for Regina.
• Halle Schutz and Evjen both had a team-high 13 digs. Schutz, making her second career start at setter, finished with 23 assists.
• The setback drops the Cougars’ record to 4-14 and puts their postseason hopes on life support. To qualify for the postseason, Regina will need to defeat UBC Okanagan twice next weekend in fewer than five sets and receive some significant help on the out-of-town scoreboard.

NEXT UP
The Cougars head to Kelowna on Thursday to prepare for their final two Canada West games of the season. They’ll take on UBC Okanagan on Friday night (6:00 PT) and Saturday afternoon (4:00 PT) at the UBCO Gymnasium.