EDMONTON – The MacEwan Griffins have been playing to a certain standard this season, and against their cross-town rival, Alberta Pandas, they didn’t play to their capabilities.
The result was a straight sets loss (25-22, 25-22, 25-18) on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Mariah Bereziuk led MacEwan with 13 kills and nine digs, while Arden Butler recorded 12 kills. Payton Shimoda had 28 assists and nine digs in the loss for MacEwan who fell to 11-8 this season.
Lauren Tremblay led the Pandas with 14 kills and six digs, while first-year outside hitter Abby Guezen recorded 11 kills and seven digs as Alberta improves to 15-4 this year.
MacEwan was battling from behind for a good portion of the opening set, but were able to tie it at 12-12 after a big kill from Bereziuk.
Bereziuk came through with another timely kill to tie it at 19-19, but a couple serving errors late by the Griffins allowed Alberta to earn the set win.
In the second set, MacEwan came out firing, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead, and held the lead for a good chunk of the set, but the Pandas just wouldn’t go away, and eventually took their first lead of the set at 17-16, and then moments later, back-to-back kills from Guezen gave Alberta a 22-19 lead, and they were able to hold off the Griffins the rest of the way.
MacEwan had a tough third set, as they struggled to get any string of points together to go on a run, and Alberta was able to close out the match with a 25-18 set win.
MacEwan and Alberta will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. MT (Canada West TV) at the David Atkinson Gym.
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