Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – They took one step forward, claiming a set off the Calgary Dinos in a 3-1 loss on Saturday night.
It’s something for the Griffins men’s volleyball team to build off of as they head into their home-opening weekend vs. Saskatchewan Oct. 27-28.
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The Griffins are 0-2 after dropping both of their season-opening matches to the Dinos, including falling 25-14, 18-25, 25-22, 25-12 on Saturday.
“I think learning from it is a big thing,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “We talked a lot about that post-game – what the guys learned about themselves, about their teammates and we want to take what we learned and apply it this week in training.
“A lot of times when you play a good opponent, they kind of hold the ugly mirror up to you and they show you things that you’re maybe not as good as you need to be at.
“I think that kind of helps focus our training heading into next week and then the rest of the season. When you play a good physical opponent like that, you learn about yourselves.”
MacEwan had moments where they were very good on Saturday, including in the second set when they held the lead for a long time, finally closing it out on Seth Birkholz‘s block.
“We didn’t have the first set we wanted,” admitted Poplawski. “They kind of took it to us a little bit, so I thought it was a good bounce back in the second. A lot of the stuff we’d been talking about wanting to do – service pressure, being a little more disciplined with our block, taking away space – we did a better job of that in the second. It was nice to close that one out
“It carried over into the third. We had a lead again in the third – we were up 19-17 – but we just didn’t maintain it, unfortunately. It was a small step forward for us to be able to close one out. Now, it’s about being able to sustain that for periods of time.”
Mitchel Gorman led the Griffins with 10 kills, three service aces, five digs and two blocks, while setter Mason Natras had a strong evening with eight kills, six assists, four digs and two blocks.
“Mason Natras, I thought, did some good things for us setting, as well as some offence,” said Poplawski. “He’s been working really hard on his serve, and I thought he stabilized that a bit. I thought he had a good night for us.”