MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The revamped roster of the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team, featuring several high-level recruits, will get a test right off the bat.
MacEwan opens the 2024 season at home vs. traditional Canada West powerhouse Trinity Western University on Oct. 18-19.
They also have home matches against cross-town rival Alberta – the defending national champions – on their third weekend (Nov. 8-9).
“That is a distinctly Canada West challenge where you can face the two defending national champions in two out of three weeks,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “Being at the very beginning of the season likely shines a brighter light on it, but every team in the conference is loaded and presents a challenge.
“We have a lot of new players in the program, and they will get the opportunity to play some of the top teams in the country very early on which will be a very good measuring stick.”
MacEwan’s first road trip of the season is to Kelowna, B.C. Oct. 25-25 to meet UBC Okanagan – the only team they beat in 2023-24 – but other extremely strong tests await in the first semester with series against Winnipeg and UBC. The opening game of the Winnipeg series (Nov. 15) is a special ‘School Day’ doubleheader with games at noon (women) and 1:30 p.m. (men), designed for schools to bring their students.
“We’ve had the privilege of being involved in some school day games in the past and they are always a really fun experience,” said Poplawski.
“You get a lot of students out to the game and get to expose them to a level of volleyball they might not have seen before. It’s usually quite loud and a great atmosphere.”
The second semester is highlighted by three consecutive road trips from Jan. 17 to Feb. 8 to Saskatchewan, Mount Royal and Manitoba with home sets against UFV (Jan. 10-11) and Calgary (Feb. 14-15) book-ending that slate.
All home games are held in the David Atkinson Gymnasium.
An expanded Canada West playoff format – adding Seeds 9 and 10 to the post-season picture for a Play-In round vs. Seeds 8 and 7, respectively (Feb. 21-23 weekend) – will increase the Griffins’ chances of qualifying for the CW playoffs for the first time.
The winners from there head into a best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series on the Feb. 28 to March 2 weekend. A Final Four weekend is slated for March 7-9 with semifinals and finals.
The U SPORTS national championship is slated for March 21-23 at Brandon University.