Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins knew they'd be in tough facing a perennial powerhouse, in the Trinity Western Spartans, but they wanted to show they could compete with one of the best teams in the country.
Despite losing in straight sets (25-19, 25-23, 26-24), they proved they could go toe-to-toe with Trinity Western and put up a big fight.
Jefferson Morrow led the Griffins with 11 kills and three digs, while Alexei Walisser recorded eight kills and three digs in the loss for MacEwan, while Brodie Hofer led the Spartans attack with 11 kills, five aces and five digs, as the Spartans improved to 10-1, while the loss dropped the Griffins to 0-11 this season.
"To come out against a team that is No.1 or No. 2 in the country and perform the way we did, I'm proud of the boys" said Morrow.
"Obviously, there are opportunities, and we're not here for moral victories, but there is a lot that we can build from this loss."
In dropping the opening set 25-19, the Griffins fell behind 9-4 early and couldn't get on a scoring run, but they continued to battle, no matter how far behind they got.
The Spartans looked in full control in the second set, building an 18-10 lead, but then the Griffins picked themselves up off the floor and fought back hard.
When Trinity Western led 20-12, the Griffins rattled off nine straight points to take a 21-20 lead, built off of three big kills from Morrow.
M��| UPDATE
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) December 3, 2022
What a block by Carsten Bergeron!
Griffins got on a huge run to take the lead late in Set 2, but @TWUSpartans rallied back to take it 25-23 and now lead 2-0 in @CanadaWest action.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/xP63lP1n4d
MacEwan led 23-22 in the second set, but Hofer, who is among the best servers in the country, rattled off three straight service aces to steal the set away from the Griffins.
"When a guy is coming in and serving 120 (km/hour), it's tough. They're the best serving team in the country," said Morrow.
"We did a fairly good job in our passing tonight, but in those last few serves of his, there wasn't much we could do. He did a hell of a job."
Losing a hard-fought set can oftentimes be demoralizing, but the Griffins went right back to work in the third set, and once again pushed the Spartans, who are ranked No. 2 in the country and have won five of the last six Canada West championships.
"Even when we were down 19-10 in the second set, we didn't give up. Usually, we would've given up, but we continued to push them until the end. It's about getting over that hump," said Morrow
"We were just making them play. Alex (Lyndon) was putting in great serves and our middles did a hell of a job against them getting touches on everything."
Alexander Lyndon sets up a ball for the Griffins on Friday (Eduardo Perez photo).
In the third set, the Griffins hung close with the Spartans most of the way. They took an 18-17 lead, and took advantage of some unforced errors by Trinity Western to take a 22-21 lead late, but it wasn't enough as the Spartans grinded out the 26-24 set win.
"Tonight, we backed our skills. Yeah, they're a big team, and they have the (winning) history, but we played free. We swung away, and it didn't quite get us the result, but it put us in a situation to get a chance to win," said Morrow.
"No matter what the score was, we kept playing our ball and stuck to our guns, and that's why we were able to give ourselves a chance the whole game. Every minute we play against them, we're learning and getting better and there are a lot of good takeaways from this game.
"It gives us confidence that we can compete with anyone on the other side. To go on a (nine-point) run against Trinity, that doesn't happen much in volleyball and to do it against a team like that is something we can take a lot from."
The Griffins will wrap up their weekend series against Trinity Western on Saturday at 4 p.m. at David Atkinson gymnasium (Canada West TV).
