EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team knew they’d be in tough against the University of Alberta Golden Bears, but they certainly weren’t going to be pushovers.
The Griffins held their own against the No.3 ranked team in Canada, including winning a set against Alberta for the first time since Nov.10, 2018, but fell in four sets (25-19, 25-11, 19-25, 25-20), Friday night at David Atkinson gym.
Second-year outside hitter Jefferson Morrow led MacEwan with nine kills and two digs, while fourth-year outside hitter Alexei Walisser recorded eight kills and seven digs in the loss.
The Golden Bears were led by third-year outside hitters Jordan Canham and Braedon Friesen, who led the potent Alberta attack with 19 and 17 kills respectively.
Alberta jumped out to a big 11-4 lead in the opening set, forcing MacEwan to call a timeout. That sparked the Griffins as they battled back and closed the gap considerably, but their slow start cost them. Alberta overpowered MacEwan in the second set, with a hitting percentage of 33.3%, and only recorded two attack errors, but the Griffins didn’t pull the pin.
In the third set, they took an early 3-2 lead and while Alberta tried hard to overtake the Griffins, MacEwan held the lead the rest of the way.
Morrow made a nice tip at the net to give the Griffins a 10-6 lead, and then with Alberta pressing, Walisser came up with an important kill to give MacEwan a 19-16 lead. He followed it up with an ace and Ethan Nashim had two of his six kills late in the set to preserve the Griffins set win.
MacEwan carried that momentum into the fourth set and was able to obtain an early lead, but after Canham served one of his five aces in the game, the Golden Bears took the lead at 6-5 and while MacEwan pushed and battled, they weren’t able to retake the lead from Alberta.
Despite their 1-12 record, the Griffins hold down the final playoff spot in the conference. They know that if they put forth an effort like they did against Alberta, over their next five games, they have a good chance of moving up the standings into a better playoff position.
MacEwan will wrap up their weekend series with Alberta on Saturday at 7 p.m. at David Atkinson gym.
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