Strong offensive effort pushes Manitoba, but Griffins will look to shore up defence after 3-1 loss

Jason Hills 
For MacEwan Athletics 
 
EDMONTON – Coming out of the Christmas break, the MacEwan Griffins showed no signs of rust offensively, but it was their work on the defensive side of the ball that came back to bite them against the Manitoba Bisons in a four-set loss (27-25, 18-25, 19-25, 20-25) Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym. 

Mitchel Gorman led MacEwan with 17 kills and five digs, while Daylan Andison added 11 kills and five digs as MacEwan fell to 0-13 this season. 

Alexander Lyndon recorded 35 assists in the loss for the Griffins. 

Spencer Grahame led the Bisons with 22 kills and five digs as Manitoba improved to 9-4 this season. 

“Coming back from the break, I thought our offence ran well. Alex was distributing the ball quite well. We were able to get a lot of solos (one-on-ones) on the outside, but we need to work better on our passing, there were some ups and downs there,” said Andison. 

“We let them get on some runs of too many points, and we’d let one of their serves take us on a run, and it wouldn’t even be a serve we should have too much trouble to handle.” 

MacEwan looked really strong in the opening set, going toe-to-toe with the Bisons. Manitoba held the lead through the majority of the opening set, but back-to-back aces from Lyndon tied the set at 18-18, and then a big block from Aiden McLennan restored the lead for the Griffins at 19-18. 

Both teams went back and forth the rest of the way in the set that featured 11 ties, and after MacEwan took a 26-25 lead, they got a nice block from Lyndon and Seth Birkholz to win the opening set, 27-25. 

MacEwan couldn’t grab momentum from the win, though, as the Bisons led the second set the entire way. 

“There were a lot of battles that we won out there, but we didn’t have the mental compete level to stay in those battles the whole way,” said Griffins middle Jonah Karsten. 

“We were close in a lot of areas tonight, but being close isn’t good enough. Our mental compete level needs to be there the whole game.” 

In the third and fourth sets, MacEwan didn’t hold many leads, and they found themselves deep in some holes, and they’d go on a nice run to get within striking distance, just a point or two away, and then they’d allow the Bisons to go on another scoring run. 
Ultimately, they gave too many easy looks and the Bisons were able to make good on 46.1% of their attacks. 

“We’d make our way back with a run, and then give them the ball back and they’d go on another run and that killed us a few times, especially later in the sets,” said Andison.

 “It comes down to us limiting their runs. They didn’t do too much that we couldn’t handle, we just didn’t do a good enough job in that regard.” 

Karsten feels a lot of the mistakes the Griffins are making come down to the mental side of the game. Throughout this year, when they’ve got down in sets, they haven’t been able to stop big scoring runs.” 

Against the Bisons, defensively, they didn’t block as well as they normally do, which led to Manitoba taking control of the match. 

“We get caught up in what the score is, and I think it can get in our head, but the only thing that matters is the next point. We need to value every point the same,” said Karsten. 

“We have a chance tomorrow to adjust and be better. Our block can be better. There were a lot of times where they had an open lane to swing at. Our middles and outsides need to be in the right spots and that comes down to a team effort.” 

MacEwan and Manitoba will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at the David Atkinson Gym at 3 p.m. (Canada West TV).