Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – It’s one thing to talk about what you’re going to do when you face as good of a defensive team as the Winnipeg Wesmen are.
It’s quite another to execute when you’re blasting 100 km/hour serves at them and they stay in system.
Frustration eventually got the better of the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team, as they lost in straight sets to the U SPORTS No. 3 (25-15, 25-14, 25-22) during their inaugural ‘School Day’ game on Friday afternoon.
“I would say they’re the best defensive team, probably in the country,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “We talked about that all week. It was in our game plan prep that we need to stay patient because you’re going to hit some balls that score on a lot of teams, and it just won’t. It’s going to take two, three or four swings sometimes in long rallies.
“I thought they did a good job frustrating us. We talked about when they make those digs, we’ve got to set up quickly because then we can see what’s coming and react to it. I thought we were just too slow.
“I just thought they were a step ahead all day and it started with their defensive effort.”
With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-7 in the Canada West standings, while Winnipeg remains one of just four undefeated teams in the country, improving to 7-0.
Luke Lodewyks led the Wesmen with 10 kills, four service aces and seven digs, while reigning Canada West first team all-star Isaiah Olfert had seven kills in the first two sets before being rested for the third. Paxton Koop added seven kills on .700 efficiency with five blocks.
MacEwan was led by Mitchell Croft, who finished with 10 kills, while middle blocker Spencer Loucks chipped in five kills on an .833 efficiency in perhaps his strongest game as a Griffin after transferring to MacEwan from the SAIT Trojans this season.
“I think it was just making sure I was available in transition for (setter) Mason (Natras), so we could run something, which is what we were working at in practice a lot this week,” said Loucks. “I was there and able to put the ball away, got us some points early in those sets there.”
The Griffins were even with the Wesmen early in the first set before conceding an 11-2 run against as they couldn’t handle Ben Traa’s float serve. Eventually, the set ended on a net violation by MacEwan with the Griffins 10 points behind.
“It’s 7-all in the first set and we don’t side out until 16-7,” said Poplawski. “And it was a float serve. It was a good float serve, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen. I’m not sure why our passers weren’t crisp. We just took turns rotating errors. You can’t build a match like that when they put so much pressure on your side out game with how good their defence is.”
Passing held the Griffins back again in Set 2 as the Wesmen raced out to a 7-3 lead, stifled the Griffins’ comeback attempt with great defence mid-set and then put the hammer down with Lodewyks at the service line for seven-straight points – including two of his four aces – to gain a 22-11 advantage. The proceedings ended on a Tristan Arnold ace.
“It’s a little disappointing that way with our passing, but I know they do have the ability to bounce back,” said Poplawski. “That’s probably the first time this year where we’ve passed like that. We’ll watch film and I know they’ll do a better job tomorrow.”
With the Wesmen resting Olfert and fellow starter Easton Dick in the third set, the Griffins had more success, but they still couldn’t ever erase a three-point advantage the visitors held from 9-6 and the match ended on Koop’s kill. If there is a positive to the ending, the Griffins dodged three-straight set points before the finish.
“We can take out the positives,” said Loucks. “We found when we switched it up a little bit it was able to work, not always going to one guy or one hitter all the time. Having that mixed offence in there allows us to get more options at any given point.”
The teams will meet again on Saturday (4:30 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).