The College of the Rockies Avalanche started their PACWEST season last weekend with games on the road.
Both the men and women’s volleyball teams had four games in four days.
At the end of the road trip, the women’s volleyball team has a record of 1-3.
The women’s team won their first game against Capilano University 3-0 on Thursday, but could not repeat that on Friday and was downed 3-2.
On Saturday and Sunday, the women played against Douglas College (2017/18 PACWEST gold medal and 2017-18 CCAA national championship silver) but fell 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.
The Avalanche are the only team that when on the road has to play four games because of their unique location, which makes road trips that much more gruelling.
“For us, it is a challenge when we are travelling … the physical toll and even the mental and emotional toll takes an effect on the athletes because they are doing exams on the road, homework on the road. They are still students,” said head coach John Swanson.
With the girls able to take the win on the first night of play, Swanson said he was pleased to see how they competed during the weekend.
The team is young, with only one-fifth year, one-third year, and all the rest in their second or first year.
“With having a relatively young team I was really pleased with the performance of how the ladies played with playing in a foreign gym- for most of them or a lot of them – and how they competed,” said Swanson.
With the volleyball season just underway, Swanson is excited for the year and says the women on the team work hard on and off the court to improve.
“They are just a phenomenal bunch of people. They work really hard, they are really competitive in nature, which I really appreciate,” he said.
They will take the court at 6 p.m. today, and have a rematch on Saturday at 1 p.m., all at the COTR gym.