WVB Recap:
On Friday November 8th, College of the Rockies women's volleyball team faced off against the 15th best team in Canada – the Douglas College Royals. The Avalanche started strong in each of the 4 sets, but Douglas made big pushes every time to make for an exciting evening. Lead offensively by Ella Nichols (18 kills) and Rylee Bell (12 kills) the Avalanche defeated the Royals 3-1.
We had an excellent travel day on Thursday and came into the game on Friday night fully prepared to face a strong Douglas team," said coach Bryan Fraser. "We had strong starts in each of the sets, which triggered Douglas to push back. We had some big plays at the right moments to close out the first, third and fourth sets, earning the victory.
The next day, the teams faced off again. The Avalanche lost a close 1st set 21-25, then rallied back with a blowout set win 25-13 to tie the game. The 3rd and 4th sets then went to the Royals who got off to early set leads and the Avalanche struggled to climb back into the game after the early deficits. Rylee Bell and Hannah Gray led the offence with 12 kills and 11 kills respectively while Stevie Friesen had 18 digs on the night.
"Saturday, we started pretty even with Douglas and just faded away after 20 points," Fraser said. "I did like our determination in the second set, we controlled the play right from the beginning. In sets 3 and 4, the Royals got off to quick leads and we really struggled to find both the mental and physical energy to make the difficult push necessary to close the gap against such a quality team. We will learn from Saturday's loss and be 100% prepared for Camosun in 2 weeks' time.
The Avalanche will be on a bye week before hosting the CCAA's #6 ranked team - the Camosun Chargers on Nov 22 & 23.