Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

CALGARY – Like the wild zig-zags of a yoyo, so go the inconsistencies of a young team.

There are the tremendous highs, like the first set on Saturday for the MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team when they dominated the Calgary Dinos from start to finish in a 25-29 win.

Then there are the crushing lows, like the next three sets, which they lost 25-17, 25-17, 25-16 as their hitting efficiency got progressively worse (.259 to .036 to .-.030 to -.040) in a 3-1 defeat to the Dinos.

"When it's good, it's really good," said MacEwan head coach Ken Briggs. "It's as good as I've seen in that first set and parts of the other sets, but that inconsistency – just too many errors. We had 25 hitting errors and 12 missed serves.

"We blocked well and did some good things – everything we prepared for worked and then gradually you make a mistake here and there and the whole thing switches."

Confidence eroded for the Griffins in the second set and digressed until they were a shell of their first-set selves at the end of the match.

"It was a slow bleed in the second set and then it just escalated in the third and fourth," said Briggs. "They got out to a couple big leads in the third and fourth and we battled to a certain extent, but we're so unsure of ourselves. The confidence level is fleeting."

Erica Bolink led the Griffins with seven kills and 10.5 points, while Danielle Jodoin came off the bench with a solid six kills and a team-leading .235 hitting percentage in three sets of work.

"Dani Jodoin came in the last couple of sets and did a good job," said Briggs. "That was her first time starting. She did really well."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-4 on the Canada West campaign, while Calgary improves to 2-2.

If there are takeaways, it's to find the form that led them to victory in the first set and keep it rolling through any potential stormy waters afterward.

"It was really good, then reality hit," summed up Briggs. "We rolled them in the first one and everything was going perfect. Then in the second one, things got back to reality. They got more aggressive and those doubts crept in. We kind of let up and then had a ton of errors in the last three sets.

"Again, it's part of the journey. You hold your breath every time you go out there to see what's going to happen."

Next up for the Griffins is a pair of home matches vs. Mount Royal University on Nov. 26-27.