Griffins unable to holds leads, falling in straight sets to Dinos in season opener

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

CALGARY – Struggling to play with a lead cost the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team in a 3-0 loss to the Calgary Dinos in their season opener on Friday night.

At several points during the match, the visitors were sitting pretty – such as when they opened the first set with a 7-1 lead and when they were up 23-18 on the Dinos in the second set.

In all cases, they weren’t able to sustain, falling 25-19, 28-26, 25-18 in Canada West action.

“That ability to battle when you have a lead (is crucial),” said head coach Brad Poplawski. “I thought our assistant coach Greg (Gulash) said it well: It’s not like we’re nervous or scared, but we maybe just don’t have the same level of play or something changes with us with the lead.”

The Griffins might have had a better fate if they could have closed out the second set, which would have tied the match. They were only two points away from doing so, up by five when they gave up an untimely 6-1 run against.

They were still battling down 27-26, though, when a controversial call went against them and decided the set.

“They set a ball and my blockers did the right thing and pulled their hands down, and (Louis Kunstmann) hits it way out of bounds and the ref called a touch and we lose a set,” said Poplawski. “I thought that took a little wind out of our sails.”

The wind was out of their sails for most of the rest of the way as the Dinos held a two-point advantage for much of the fourth set before pulling away late to end the match.

“We obviously have to respond better and we did at times – it was 16-14 and we were pushing – we just could never find a way to close,” said Poplawski. “They pulled away at the end.”

Mitchel Gorman led the Griffins with 11 kills and nine digs, while Erik Godwin topped the Dinos’ efforts with 16 kills.

“I thought Mitch Gorman led the way offensively for us,” said Poplawski. “Jonah (Karsten) had some good spurts in the middle. 

“Obviously we’re running a different system this year that gives us a different wrinkle, so Mason (Natras) and Alex (Lyndon) distributed the ball well at times. Dan (Hebert) was officially named our captain today, which was really cool. He was that stabilizer we needed on defence.”

The teams will meet again on Saturday (5 p.m., Canada West TV).

“Definitely a lot of learning opportunities for us,” Poplawski added. “To lose, those lessons are painful, but a lot of good things from my guys.”