Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — After dropping their last three games, the MacEwan Griffins were champing at the bit to get back in the win column.
They had to wait an extra seven days because of their bye week, but they came out strong with a four-set win (25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 25-22) over the Brandon Bobcats on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Mariah Bereziuk recorded a season-high 20 kills and nine digs, while Sarah McGee had eight kills, two digs and two blocks, while Payton Shimoda produced 36 assists and 13 digs in the victory as MacEwan improved to 4-3 this season.
Avery Burgar led Brandon with 13 kills and four digs in the loss, as the Bobcats fell to 0-7.
"Waiting two weeks to play is tough, but I thought the girls responded in the first set with some good execution," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler.
"We kind of let the focus part get away from us in the second set. We got it back momentarily, but it was too late, but we really dived into our game in the third and fourth set and we did a really good job getting it back together."
MacEwan came out strong in the opening set. They were in control of the entire set, leading from start to finish. If it weren't for unforced serving errors early on in the set, the Griffins would've really kept their distance from the Bobcats.
"The first set was a real struggle early on. I think the score was 9-8, and we have a bunch of missed serves. The controllable weren't there early, but we reduced them and served the ball really well the rest of the way," said Wandler.
Danielle Jodoin, who came into the match with seven career aces over three seasons, nailed three-straight aces to give MacEwan a 14-10 lead, and they didn't look back. Jodoin would finish the match with a single-game career high of four.
"She really found a way to contribute from the service line tonight and that really helped turn us around," said Wandler.
Brandon responded with likely their best set of the season in the second set as they jumped out to a real strong start.
After Wandler called a timeout for MacEwan, down 10-5, the Griffins responded, tying it up at 10-10 after a big block from Bereziuk.
MacEwan was able to take a 15-13 lead after a nice block from Jodoin, but Brandon just wasn't going away.
They took a 16-15 lead after an ace from Alexandra Roberge, and despite some strong play from MacEwan, they weren't able to overcome that deficit in the second set.
"You have to give Brandon credit, they wouldn't go away. Sometimes when you're playing really good volleyball, you want your opponents to disappear, but they don't, they battled and that really helped us stay in the match," said Wandler.
"You're always going to come across a scrappy opponent in the Canada West, and Brandon was definitely that, tonight."
Brandon once again came out big after winning their first set of the season, but MacEwan wasn't going to let that momentum carry any further.
MacEwan was able to take their first lead of the set at 10-9, as part of a 7-0 run to take a 15-9 lead, and they didn't look back.
The Griffins seemed to really respond after Wandler took a timeout.
"It was about collecting ourselves and refocusing. Our assistant coaches do a great job of keeping the girls at the task at hand, and they do a really good job relating to the girls," said Wandler.
Jodoin's strong serving seemed to resonate through the rest of the match as the Griffins finished with 10 aces from the service line.
Shimoda recorded three, McGee had two and rookie outside hitter Tess Weber recorded her first-career ace in the third set to give MacEwan a 24-16 lead.
"Serving can be contagious, and it trickled down throughout our lineup tonight," said Wandler.
"It was nice to see Tess get her first career ace. That's the one way you can contribute as a freshman when you're not getting a lot of court time is to execute at the serving line when your number's called, and Tess served really well tonight."
In the fourth set, Brandon continued to tried to push to a fifth set as they went toe-to-toe with MacEwan, even holding a lead as late as 21-20, but MacEwan's big hitters, Bereziuk, McGee and Bryks came up big when they needed it most collecting some big kills for MacEwan to finish the Bobcats off.
"Mariah was outstanding and McGee had eight kills and a great stat line. We had a lot of good contributors tonight," said Wandler.
"Payton gave her some real good balls to deliver. We really worked on our second contact all week, and that second contact really showed dividends tonight."
MacEwan and Brandon will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday (3 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
