Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – Untimely serving errors proved costly for the Griffins women's volleyball team in a loss to the UFV Cascades on Saturday night.
Although they hung with the No. 7-ranked team in the country for most of the night, it was once again the timing of the errors that derailed MacEwan's efforts in a 3-0 defeat (25-17, 25-22, 25-17).
"We were in it with them for most of the match," said MacEwan head coach Chris Wandler. "There were some things that crept back into our game that we were working on. We just had a bunch of missed serves in the first two sets. They just came at inopportune times.
"When you work your tail off to win a point and then come back and sail one out of the end line, it makes it pretty tough. That's what happened at various junctures of the game."
With the result, the Griffins fall to 3-3, while UFV improves to 4-2 on the young Canada West season.
"That was the story of the first two sets," said Wandler of the serving errors. "In the third set, we got caught in a rotation and gave up five or six points in a row. We just couldn't find a way to side out.
"We really battled hard, we had a much higher effort level and investment today, so that's a positive on a night we didn't come out on the right end of the stick."
Mariah Bereziuk led the Griffins with 13 kills, while middle blocker Sarah McGee put in a solid shift with 10 kills and three blocks.
"McGee had a really impressive match tonight," said Wandler. "That was one of our key things was to run Sarah a little bit more. Mariah had some good numbers, too.
"Bronwyn (Ettinger) on the defensive side of things really had the emotional spirit of the team, and really kept our team in it."
Ettinger finished with 17 digs.
MacEwan's biggest takeaway from their most challenging weekend of the season to date (facing a nationally-ranked team)?
"We still have work to do," said Wandler. "We need to sustain our play into longer point streaks on our side.
"We're three weeks into a 12-week season, but we're trending in the right direction. The coach is happy."
