Royals break into New Year with split against Cascades

The Douglas College Royals women's volleyball teams first home game of the new year ended in a 3-0 victory over the University of Fraser Valley Cascades Saturday afternoon.

Douglas outside hitters Emma Schill and Grace Warkentin, along with the PACWEST league leader in Digs and Digs per set, Royals libero Trisha He contributed heavily to the Royals victory on Saturday. Both Schill and Warkentin combined for 25 kills, with Warkentin tying her season high 12, and He finishing with 25 digs.

Although the first set remained relatively close, the Royals maintained the lead throughout and after a quick two points from UFV cut the royals lead down to two forcing Douglas to take a timeout late in the set to regroup. It was after that timeout where Schill would come up with a timely dig, which then setup Warkentin to score a set point and secure the first set 25-22.

However, the tables seemed to have turned in the second set as it was now UFV who maintained a lead and were in position to close the set with a 24-20 lead. However, right side hitter Grace Mcgillivary's back to back points, a block from Olivia Cesaretti, and a couple of UFV mishaps helped the Royals score six straight points to come back and win the second set 26-24.

A similar run would also occur in the third as points scored by middle blocker Samantha Dodds, Mcgillivary, Warkentin, and a couple of outs from the Cascades then helped the Royals get on a 9-1 run and close off the Cascades in the third set 25-18.

Saturday's victory split the back to back matchups between the two teams that week, as UFV beat the Royals 3-1 the night prior. When asked about what went different on Saturday, Royals head coach Jeff Ross said:

"Being able to take care and execute the easy things and having a better service pressure helped us turn things around today."

The Royals are now 4^th in the PACWEST provincial standings (6-7), and when talking about adjustments he feels this team needs to make Ross said:

"We're still developing and learning a lot about how each person plays and what each person needs to get better, and I think that doing that will help us a lot throughout the season."

The Royals next home game will be this Thursday against the College of the Rockies Avalanche at 6pm.