Rookies shine as Griffins push big-serving Spartans for long stretches of straight-sets defeat

Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — Losing in straight sets is never the result you’re looking for, but for the MacEwan Griffins, they can certainly be pleased with their overall effort — especially when you’re facing a perennial national championship contender like the Trinity Western Spartans.

The Griffins put forth a gritty effort in a straight sets loss (25-20, 25-23, 25-15) Friday night at the David Atkinson Gymnasium.

Playing in his first Canada West conference match, Mitchell Croft led the Griffins with 10 kills, while fellow rookie Daylan Laszlo and Seth Birkholz chipped in with three each in the loss.

Piers De Greeff led TWU with 10 kills, while John Obi had nine in the win for the Spartans.

“The way we played the first two sets, if we play like that against most teams, we will win some games and win some sets,” said Griffins setter Mason Natras, who recorded 17 assists and five digs in the loss.

“We did a lot of positive things we can build off of in those first two sets. There’s nowhere to go, but up.” 

The opening set got off to a rough start for MacEwan as they fell behind 8-1, but back-to-back kills from Laszlo and Croft got some momentum back for the Griffins. Another kill from Croft would cut the lead to 12-8, and MacEwan would go on a little 4-0 run to close the gap even more, but TWU would prove to be too strong.

MacEwan jumped out to an early lead in the second set and didn’t allow TWU to get on any sort of big run of momentum. They hung with them the entire set. A kill from Natras and two kills from Croft cut the TWU lead to 16-14, and then a block from Daylan Andison would tie the set at 18-18.

An ace later in the set from De Greeff would give TWU a 23-21 lead, and MacEwan couldn’t come any closer.

“We have to build on each game. In that second set, we showed what we’re more capable of,” said Natras.

“Starting off the season against some tough teams, it will just make you that much better down the road. When the second semester hits, we will be rolling, because we’ve played such strong teams at the top of the league to start off.”

One area the Griffins will want to improve on is their serve-receive. They allowed 12 aces, half of those to 2023-24 Canada West aces leader Anselm Rein, who had six, while Kyden Dmitruk and Cory Schoenherr would each record two.

“We haven’t seen teams serve like that all year. We went to Ontario and here, but we’ve never played a team that serves like that, and it was good for the guys to get used to serves like this to start off,” said Natras.

“It’s good for them to get used to those kinds of serves and prepare them for the rest of the season.”

Friday marked the debuts for Croft and Lazlo, and they certainly made their mark in their first-ever Canada West conference match for MacEwan.

“I think they did great. Mitch was phenomenal for us, and he’s been that way all through the preseason. And Daylan, he only turned 18 two weeks ago, so to hang in there with a team like that, good on him. That was incredible,” said Natras.

For Lazlo, he stepped in to replace Jarod Inia, who was unavailable for the season opener, and the Chilliwack B.C. product held his own against one of the top teams in the country.

“With a team that good, you just want to go out there and play. I’m expecting high things from myself, but at the same time, I’m there to compete, and whatever I can do to help the team, I’ll do it,” said Lazlo.

“We can take some good stuff out of this (loss). Our coverage was pretty good when we were recycling off the balls. If we can just transition a little faster and run a little faster on offense, we’ll be good there.”

MacEwan will wrap up their weekend series against Trinity Western on Saturday (4:30 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).