Griffins take opening set before failing to match UBC’s response in 3-1 defeat

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – By far the better team in the opening set, it seemed like the night might be a special one for the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team who have never beaten the UBC Thunderbirds.

Instead, after dropping the opener 25-13, the visitors made an adjustment and rolled from there, winning three-straight sets to take a 3-1 win over MacEwan on Friday night (13-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-19).

The Griffins had only two attacking errors in the opening set and took advantage of several untimely errors by an unsettled UBC team that was coming off back-to-back losses to Winnipeg on their last weekend.

“I think we did a really good job blocking and defending,” said MacEwan setter Alexander Lyndon. “They had trouble swinging against us and then we defended well around our block. After that, for the rest of the match, they pushed back harder, and I don’t think we were quite ready for that response.”

With the result, the Griffins drop to 0-7 in the Canada West standings, while the T’Birds improve to 2-3.

Both squads are two of the youngest in the conference with multiple first and second-year players seeing action on Friday at the David Atkinson Gym. Youth usually means consistency will be lacking at times, which is what both teams went through in the match.

Ultimately, UBC pulled it together for a longer amount of time and emerged with the win in the fourth set on Reeve Gingera’s rocket that went sideways off Daylan Andison‘s hands. 

Gingera led the Thunderbirds with 19 kills and was generally unstoppable from the second set on. Gavin Moes added 15 kills, Toby Bergh had 13 and Mason Greves finished with 43 assists and 17 digs.

Mitchel Gorman led MacEwan’s efforts with 10 kills, while Seth Birkholz had seven kills and four blocks, and Lyndon had 17 assists and two aces.

Mitch Gorman led MacEwan with 10 kills on Friday (Eduardo Perez photo).

“We’ve got to learn how to play against big teams that hit the ball high,” said Lyndons. “What they really did effectively was tip and roll around the block. We know that their swing is a threat, but then we’re not ready to dig the shorter balls, as well. We’ve got to be able to do both.”

Lyndon and fellow setter Samuel Rains were both in MacEwan’s starting lineup as the Griffins went with the rare 6-2 combination, allowing the back row setter to set and the front row one to attack.

“I think it’s good,” said Lyndon, who was returning from an injury that cost him the previous two weekends. “It lets us always have a front row right side, so I think that’s a pretty big advantage. It just helps us have guys who are used to touching the ball a lot out on the court all the time. As a setter, you touch the ball on every play, more or less, so having two of those guys on the court is a calming presence. 

“We’ve been able to find some decent offence, so it’s good that way.”

It certainly worked well in the opening set as Rains, who saw his first start at setter last weekend at UFV, thundered down a kill from the right side that fired up the team – one of three for him on the match.

Somehow, though, the Griffins weren’t able to maintain the momentum, which is a learning lesson for the young team. The swing in the game was a little bit of MacEwan’s play sagging while UBC’s was surging.

“It was definitely both,” said Lyndon. “A good team like this isn’t going to go away just because we won one set. I think we have to do a better job of expecting that push-back and wanting to play within the rhythm of the match. 

“We can’t be so up and down, we’ve got to be more consistent.”

The teams will meet again on Saturday (3 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).