Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — 413 days between wins.
A 27-game losing streak.
A lot of heartbreak and tough lessons learned along the way, but the MacEwan Griffins are back in the win column after a thrilling five-set win (15-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-22, 15-13) over the University of Fraser Valley Cascades on Saturday night at the David Atkinson gymnasium.
Jefferson Morrow led the Griffins with 14 kills, 11 digs and two blocks, while Alexei Walisser had 13 kills, and seven digs.
Mitch Gorman chipped in with nine kills and three blocks, while Jonah Karsten had five kills and six blocks in the Griffins win.
Nimo Benne led the Cascades with 23 kills and six digs in the loss for the Cascades.
“We’ve been in a lot of fifth sets this year and they haven’t gone our way. Maybe the moment was too big for us, but tonight, I was impressed with our patience. We found a way to push and push,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski.
“We do the things that get us to a fifth set, and I think we’ve felt we have to do something more, but today, they stayed patient and aggressive and when they tied it at 13-13 (in the fifth set), you maybe think, ‘here we go again,’ but it was the exact opposite.
“It was nice to see our composure and our patience come through in the fifth set.”
Earlier this season, the Griffins held a 14-10 lead in the fifth set against the Calgary Dinos, only to see their lead slip away.
There were moments against UFV where it could’ve happened again, but the Griffins stood their ground.
Leading 23-17 in the fourth set, the Griffins had all the momentum as they looked to push it to the fifth set, but UFV chipped away and closed the gap to 24-22, before the Griffins got the set point.
In the fifth set, after a Carsten Bergeron tip made it 13-11, UFV clawed back to tie it at 13-13, but the Griffins said enough is enough and Walisser’s block at the net clinched the win.
“We had to really gut that one out, and our guys really responded. They were serving some bombs at us, and we found a way for the first time this year for it not to turn into something,” said Poplawski.
“This year, too often we’d stop our own runs, and today in those important moments, our guys stepped up and made big plays.”
Walisser’s block on match point was fitting for the Griffins, who recorded a season-high 18 blocks as a team.
Three players had at least two digs, led by Karsten’s six.
“It feels incredible. We’ve gone through so much adversity, and we’ve been building. Those little moments from last semester, where we kept battling, despite not getting the wins, it was for moments like today where we learned from all those experiences,” said Walisser.
“We said coming into this weekend, we needed to play gritty, and last night I don’t think we did enough. Tonight, we battled our butts off, and we made it frustrating for them.”
It took a full team effort to get the first win of the season for the Griffins. It was unsung hero performances like Karsten’s six blocks or setter Mason Natras, who was making his first start of the season, and he recorded 35 assists, while also adding five digs and three blocks.
“Jonah, we’ve been working on his blocking all semester. He’s such a workhorse and so dedicated, and tonight he had his moment to shine, and today he earned that,” said Walisser.
“Kudos to Mason, he came out in his first start and took some risks, and he played an incredible game.
“It takes all 14 players, and it took every guy on our bench cheering us on to help us through every moment, making sure our energy was good and giving us advice. It took everybody on this team to get that win tonight.”
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