Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – 'Defence wins championships' – the ol' popular adage that is often trotted out – rang especially true as the MacEwan Griffins endured another painful lesson in the difference between them and a nationally-ranked squad.
The Winnipeg Wesmen dug more balls, passed better and won the clutch points to earn a 3-0 sweep over the homestanding Griffins (25-23, 25-21, 25-19) in Canada West men's volleyball action on Friday night.
"They executed better than we did," said MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. "Their defence is unbelievable. Our defence is not at a U SPORTS level right now. It's a bad defence. Straight up. Our block can only do so much.
"They play playoff-level defence and we play 2-21 level D. It's not even close to the level needed."
MacEwan indeed fell to 2-21 as the curtain starts to fall on another non-playoff season, while Winnipeg improves to 15-8 as they look to sharpen up for a tough first round matchup next weekend.
At times, the Griffins gave them a test in the match, but as often been the case with the young MacEwan squad this season, they couldn't ever put it all together.
"Player for player, they've had lots of close losses," said Winnipeg head coach Larry McKay of MacEwan. "They're playing very hard here, playing like a very competitive team. They're playing like a playoff team and our guys are feeling that pressure from them, too.
"They're just straight up player for player trying to be as good as they are."
The Griffins' best stretch of the match was after the technical timeout in the first set when they took the play to the No. 6-ranked Wesmen and opened up a commanding 22-18 lead after a Jacob McIntyre kill. But they conceded a shocking 7-1 run (their only point coming off a Winnipeg service error) and pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory.
"How many times have we talked about that this year? It's unbelievable," sighed Poplawski of a set the Griffins really needed to win. "Up 21-17. I don't know.
"Our brain shuts off? I don't know. It's unbelievable."
McKay felt they got away with one late in the first set.
"We didn't do anything unusual," he explained. "We were fully prepared to change sides at the end of the first set. They had outplayed us for the most part and I feel pretty fortunate that some balls came our way at the end of that first set.
"MacEwan has some excellent players, especially Max (Vriend). Max is a tremendous player."
Vriend co-led MacEwan in kills with 10 from the middle, adding three blocks and three service aces. Ryan Zachary also had 10 kills, while Caleb Weiss had 31 assists for the Griffins.
Winnipeg was led by Daniel Thiessen, who had 13 kills and nine digs, while David Bommbersbach – playing his first match in five weeks after recovering from an injury – was fantastic and overwhelming at times with 10 kills and no errors for a sizzling .714 hitting percentage. Mikael Clegg added 35 assists.
The Wesmen gained some confidence after their first-set comeback and were in control for most of the rest of the way. Garrett Jones' service ace ended the second set on their first set point opportunity and he was at the serving line for the conclusion of the third set, as well, which ended on Vriend's net violation.
"A little bit," said McKay of gaining some confidence after the first set. "Maybe a little confidence perhaps. The second set was a brand-new set again. We did get a little bit more confidence in our outside attack maybe, but other than that it was just another close set."
Ultimately, the Griffins need to be able to dig the big hitters they face in Canada West to have a chance of improving their win total.
"We work on it and work on it," said Poplawski. "It's not a system thing because guys are in the right spot. The amount of balls that just hit us and guys don't control it is not at the level it needs to be.
"You saw how many times tonight we hit a big ball and their guy made a great dig and then they get a set out of it and they score. For us, unless it's a roll shot in our lap, we don't pass a good enough ball.
"To compete at this level, because teams are going to win some points on their serve, we have to earn points," he continued. "It can't always be stuff blocks because even the best teams in the league are like 2.3 stuff blocks a set. You have to be able to dig the ball and set out of it. The few digs we get, we don't get a good enough set or we make a bad swing. We make it too hard on ourselves to compete with good teams."
The teams will meet again on Saturday night (6:30 p.m. MT, Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV), which will be MacEwan's Senior Night. Graduating players Shane Kerrison and Kornel Kowalewski will be feted.