Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – They kicked off the season 3-0 with two straight-set sweeps.
But the biggest test of the young Canada West women's volleyball season to date awaited the upstart MacEwan Griffins on Friday night.
While they pushed the U SPORTS No. 7 UFV Cascades, particularly in the first two sets, the Griffins fell 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-13).
"At times, we played like a top 10 team in the country," said MacEwan head coach Chris Wandler. "That's the level we're capable of playing, it's just sustaining that level that's extremely difficult, knowing you have to battle each point.
"Serving and passing, we did a really good job," he added. "We put them in some pretty tough situations and played them hard the first two sets. It came down to a couple unfortunate pieces in those first two sets – a break here or there. Sometimes it's not the amount of errors, it's when the error happens. That was the case in the second set."
The wheels came off a bit for the Griffins in the third set, which is a key learning moment for a team trying to maintain their top level throughout a match.
"In the third set, it was kind of what happened against Saskatchewan, we didn't have enough emotional investment to kind of take the game under control," said Wandler. "It's not like we couldn't battle with them. I thought we could have done a better job of investing ourselves more.
"Unfortunately, good teams take advantage of that. That's what Fraser Valley did tonight."
With the result, both teams are now 3-2 in the Canada West standings.
Mariah Bereziuk led the Griffins with 10 kills and Bronwyn Ettinger had 16 digs, but it was the play of Lauren Tensen, who was filling in for teammate away at a funeral, that really stood out for Wandler.
"She had five kills, two blocks, seven points – what more could you ask for from somebody coming in who hasn't started this season. She really stood out."
UFV was led by Gabrielle Attieh, who had 18 kills, while Lauren Attieh had 12 and Natalie Lemoine-Sells also hit double digits with 10.
The teams will finish their weekend series against each other on Saturday (7:45 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
"Tomorrow, we've got to adjust a bit defensively to take some of their strengths away," said Wandler. "We didn't do that soon enough tonight. We're going to make those adjustments going into tomorrow and just play the same pass-serve game that we did. And just keep on investing. It takes what it takes.
"We have the people with the skill base to do it. Our biggest test is do we have the will to compete every single rally? That's our biggest question right now within themselves. As coaches, we're like, 'yeah, you do, but you've got to be able to believe in yourself to do it.' "
