Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins just couldn't find that second gear against the University of Calgary Dinos.
One night after a heartbreaking five-set defeat, the Griffins fell in four sets (21-25, 25-20, 19-25, 19-25), Saturday afternoon at the David Atkinson gymnasium.
Third-year Jefferson Morrow led the Griffins with 14 kills and seven digs, while fifth-year outside hitter Alexei Walisser chipped in with 12 kills, while Liam Kuppe led the Dinos with 15 kills, Erik Godwin recorded 13 kills and 13 digs in the victory for Calgary.
The loss drops MacEwan to 0-8, while Calgary improves to 3-5 this season.
"They beat us on defence. They didn't let balls hit the floor. We were passing better than them for the most part, but they were hitting some real good shots," said Griffins setter Alexander Lyndon who recorded 38 assists, six digs and three aces in the loss.
"We just had too many moments where we just got stuck (offensively). They had a couple good servers that we got stuck on a couple times. It felt like the whole time we were right there, we just couldn't get those few extra points, here and there."
The Dinos took the opening set 25-21, in a set that MacEwan led for most of the way. The Griffins held an 11-5 lead after a big block from Morrow, but the Dinos just wouldn't go away, as they continued to chip away at MacEwan's lead. They eventually took a 20-19 lead after a block from Louis Kunstmann, and they didn't look back.
They earned the set win with an ace from Zack Durrant.
The Griffins however didn't let that opening set loss deter them as they found a way to battle through an ultra tight set.
MacEwan took a 10-9 lead after a kill from Walisser, and they didn't let the lead slip away again. Gorman stepped up with a nice tip to make it 18-13, and the Griffins kept the pressure on, forcing the Dinos into making some mistakes, and MacEwan capitalized, earning the second set win.
M��| Jefferson Morrow hammers home a point late in Set 2 and the Griffins win it 25-20 on a @UCDinos service error to even the @CanadaWest match 1-1.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/8Wxw5t89ab
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 20, 2022
"We did some good things in this game, but we're more than a quarter of the way through the season now. We can't wait. We have to start executing more and turn some of these set wins into games," said Lyndon.
In the third and fourth sets, the Griffins went toe-to-toe with the Dinos, but just couldn't find a way to get on a big scoring run to either take the lead or increase their lead.
In the third set, once the Dinos took a 12-10 lead, MacEwan couldn't get on a rally as both teams traded points until the Dinos went on a 6-1 run to end the set.
"We came out strong, but they played such good defence, it made it really hard on us to side out, and then we had trouble playing our own defence, and we weren't earning points on our own serve," said Lyndon.
"We served well, but we weren't executing in transition. They got some free balls and got some digs. We have to learn to win the longer rallies, and learn to adapt to a team as they play throughout the game, and I don't think we did a good enough job of that.
"We have to do a better job of managing the score and we have to do a better job of knowing when to go after things and keep possession and make them earn their points."
The fourth set was almost a carbon copy of the third set.
MacEwan managed to tie the set at 12-12 after an ace from Seth Birkholz, but then the Griffins would fall behind a couple points for the majority of the rest of the set.
Another kill from Birkholz would make it 22-17, but the Dinos were just too strong to finish off.
"They played really good defence," said Lyndon.
"We were hitting our best shots. Stuff that eight times out of 10 would score, but they made some really big digs. They made us swing two, three, four times in a rally to earn a point, and we didn't make them do that. As the match goes on, we end up playing longer points, and they would win those long rallies."
UP NEXT: The Griffins will now travel to Brandon to take on the University of Brandon Bobcats next weekend, while Calgary will face the Alberta Golden Bears at home.