Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — One of the main goals in sports is trying to be better than yesterday, and for the MacEwan Griffins they can certainly check that box off.
They didn’t earn the win on Saturday, but they took a set off of one of the top-ranked teams in the country, and nearly pushed the Trinity Western Spartans to the limit before falling in four sets (25-20, 15-25, 23-25, 16-25) at the David Atkinson Gym.
Mitchell Croft led the Griffins with nine kills and three digs, while Daylan Andison and Daylan Laszlo recorded five and four kills each, and Andison also chipped in with four digs in the loss.
Piers DeGreeff led the Spartans with 15 kills, while John Obi had 10 kills and five digs in the win for Trinity Western.
“The first set was big. We won that one and then we had a bit of a lapse in the second and then came back fighting in that third set. I think if we somehow could’ve got that third set done, it could’ve been a real momentum shift,” said Andison.
“That first set felt really good. Our passing was really good, our defence was good, we were making most of our serves and keeping them out of system for the most part and being aggressive and blocking really well and getting in their face and showing hands.”
Trinity Western led early in the opening set, but the Griffins were right there with them, and a block from Seth Birkholz tied the set at 10-10. Another big block by the Griffins would tie the set at 15-15, and then MacEwan would take over.
Andison had two kills to extend MacEwan’s lead to 20-17, and another kill from Croft would give the Griffins a 24-19 lead, and they’d earn the big set win on the next point.
“They’re one of the best teams in the country, especially for serve-receive and exposing us to arguably the best serving team in the country, this will be good for us in the long run,” said Andison.
After Trinity Western put together a real strong second set to tie the match at 1-1, the Griffins dug deep and responded with another battle in the third set.
There were three lead changes, the score was tied eight times, and MacEwan held a 14-9 lead after a block from Croft. When Trinity Western went on a 5-0 run to tie it at 14-14, the Griffins didn’t fold, they hung right with them.
With the score 24-23, Croft put forward a powerful jump serve that was near the sideline, and while it looked to be in, the linesman and the referee called it out, giving the Spartans a 25-23 win in the third set.
It was a controversial call that seemed to deflate the Griffins in the fourth set.
“That will be controversial for a while,” said Croft.
“I would say yes it was in, and Pops (Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski) would definitely say yes, but ultimately the refs called it out, and we needed to come back, but to be honest, I think that’s what brought us down in the fourth is that mental state that pushed us into the ground.”
The Griffins struggled to open the fourth set, and Trinity Western took advantage and led the whole way in the fourth set to earn the victory.
While it’s never easy losing back-to-back games to start the season, the Griffins can take many positives out of their two losses to Trinity Western.
“To push them like this, it’s really good for our boys to get back to practice and dig in and use this experience to get some wins this season,” said Croft.
The six-foot-nine Australian was making his Canada West debut this weekend, and he finished with 19 kills combined in both matches. After having some early struggles in the loss on Friday, he settled in better on Saturday for MacEwan.
“Yesterday, personally, there were a lot of nerves coming into it. It was my Canada West debut, and I got shut out pretty hard early on, but then I was able to turn it up a bit. Especially in this second game, I was able to play more freely,” said Croft.
With an injury to NAIT transfer Jared Inia, the Griffins were forced to play some rookies like Laszlo this weekend, and ACAC transfer Spencer Loucks got into the final two sets after captain Jonah Karsten went down with an injury, but the Griffins young players found a way to contribute.
“From where we’ve come in the preseason, we basically have a whole new roster with 10 new guys, and tonight and last night, we had two new rookies and a third came in tonight as well,” said Croft.
“We’ve had some rookies come in and play and make an impact. It’s good to see.”
MacEwan will travel to Kelowna, B.C. next weekend and face UBCO, who opened the Canada West regular season with a bye.