It may have come a little too close for comfort, but the Avs did what they were expected to do over the weekend.
While the Saturday match came down to a fifth set, the College of the Rockies men’s volleyball team (9-13) managed to win twice against the winless Columbia Bible College Bearcats (0-22) this past weekend.
“It was an up and down weekend, but I give the guys a lot of credit for playing with some heart because CBC was very hungry to get a win,” said head coach Herb Tepper after Saturday’s 3-2 win. “All the pressure was on us [so] I was quite proud of them for performing under pressure.”
In the first set on Friday night, the Avs appeared poised to take the match easily. Coming out hot with a 25-14 first set win, COTR was brought back to earth in the second with a 25-16 clobbering.
The rest of the weekend was very close. The Avalanche won 25-19 and then 25-22 to win on Friday 3-1, and then had a marathon match on Saturday afternoon.
The opening four sets went back-and-forth with both teams putting up over 20 points in every set. The Avs won the first 25-22, then CBC came back 25-21. COTR then won 25-21 to put the Bearcats on the ropes, but they responded in the fourth with a 25-21 victory of their own.
While the Avs won the fifth 15-12, leaving the feisty ‘Cats heartbroken, Tepper said the game could’ve easily gone either way.
“We really let down in the fourth set, which was a little disappointing,” he said. “We gave them a chance to get a match and we got pretty fortunate that we picked up our game in the fifth set.”
Tepper said that the despite being a weekend that they were expected to win, the matches should nonetheless serve as a confidence booster.
“All the pressure was on us this weekend,” he said. “[The wins] were big for us because it may have put us in a position to move up in the standings, which may help us in the playoffs.”
The Avs are currently tied with Douglas College (9-11) for fourth place and are just one win ahead of sixth-place Capilano (8-10). COTR wraps up its regular this coming weekend with a pair of home matches against second-place UFV (15-5).
“[UFV] beat the number one team in BC, so we know we have our hands full next weekend,” Tepper said, referring to the Cascades January 28 win over the VIU Mariners, who have only lost two matches all year. “I am quite confident that our guys will do well [though]. The pressure will be more on them than us next weekend. So it will be a different story I think.”
The Avs are starting to show positive signs just at the right time, with three wins in their last five matches after a dismal stretch of five straight losses. Nevertheless, Tepper isn’t taking anything for granted.
“We want to take this, almost like it’s our playoff weekend and go extremely hard,” he said. “ We want to give them a good challenge.”
The last matches of the season for the Avs go at 8 p.m. on Friday, and 3 p.m. on Saturday at the College gymnasium, following the women’s matches.