Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
KELOWNA, B.C. – Coming just a few points away from extending their winning streak to four games, up 2-1 and in control, the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team instead suffered a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the UBC-Okanagan Heat on Saturday night.
Threatening to sweep a series for the second consecutive weekend after winning the third set, the Griffins just couldn’t find a way to win the side out battle over the Heat in the fourth and fifth sets in the 22-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 15-10 result.
“They put some good service pressure on us and then when we had opportunities or when back to the service line, I thought they sided out a little too easy,” said MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. “They didn’t give us a chance to play the block defence that we wanted to play. They served well and sided out well. So that serve-pass game kind of went to them.
“The guys worked hard, and we battled. We just maybe weren’t quite as crisp or clean as yesterday and UBCO definitely raised their level tonight. That was kind of the difference.”
Still, the Griffins walk away with a weekend split after taking Friday’s match 3-0 and are now 4-18 in the Canada West standings. UBCO improves to 7-15.
Alexei Walisser led the Griffins with 17 kills, while Mitchel Gorman continued his run of strong play this month with 16 kills, two aces and 10 digs, accounting for a match-high 19.5 points. Jefferson Morrow added 10 kills and a match-high 15 digs and Alexander Lyndon had another solid night setting with 46 assists.
“Any time you play a tight five-setter, there are going to be some good individual performances,” said Poplawski. “That’s what always hurts about a fifth set. To get there, you probably played well for two or two-and-a-half hours.
“There were times I thought we were the better team in the gym. And at times, they were. It was a bit back and forth.”
Lucas Woelders, Renn Petryk and Teo Ardanaz each had 13 kills for UBCO, while Zach van Geel recorded 48 assists. Thys Weststrate caused the Griffins problems at the net with eight blocks.
“It’s tough because you battle hard for two-and-a-half hours and you leave here with a bitter taste in your mouth,” said Poplawski. “But I just told the guys after the game that I was proud of their effort and resilience tonight.
“We did some good stuff and prepared well heading into today. They were just that little bit better. But for two-and-a-half hours, we gave a pretty good showing and effort level.”
There are plenty of takeaways for the Griffins, who return home for their final two games of the season vs. Mount Royal University on Feb. 17-18.
“There were a lot of good things this weekend,” said Poplawski. “There was some stuff we can build on. We have one more weekend left, and we want to use our training sessions to get better. There were times UBCO did some things we need to improve on, and we have to get better at.
“I think at the beginning of the week if you’d have said we’d get a split this weekend, a lot of us would have taken it,” he added. “I don’t think we want to be down on ourselves. We’re going to dwell on the things we did well and learn from the things we didn’t.”