Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Besides a weird opening set which saw a 10-4 start by the Griffins answered by an 11-0 run by Regina, Friday's Canada West women's volleyball match couldn't have been more of a MacEwan landslide.
Outscoring the Cougars more than two-to-one for the rest of the night, the Griffins rolled to a comfortable straight sets victory (25-21, 25-12, 25-13) at the David Atkinson Gym.
"The more we got on with the game, we kept learning as we kept going," said captain Sarah McGee. "I think we've gotten better with that, too – finding where the holes are, finding what works. Our passing got a lot better. I think Payton (Shimoda) made some really great choices, got us some one-on-ones and we were aggressive, swinging hard. Even when there were two blockers, we weren't really afraid to get blocked."
Other than the early bobble, they weren't afraid of much in the match as the Griffins won their third straight and improved to 6-3 in the Canada West standings, dropping the Cougars to 0-9.
Bailey Balaberda led Regina with eight kills, but was held back by a -.071 hitting percentage, which was as much on the Griffins' defence as it was on her side. Jordy McEachern added five kills and nine digs for the Cougars.
"The blocking piece was really good," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "We had a really good lead on those outside hitters and our hands were in a good spot. We had 12 blocks and that's probably a season high for us.
"We also did a really good job with our out-of-system defence, putting balls in really good spots. Our out-of-system game was really good tonight."
MacEwan's Mariah Bereziuk moved within five kills of 500 in her career, with a match-high 13 kills on a sizzling .370 hitting percentage, adding eight digs and accounting for 15.0 points – a monster total in a match so short that it needed just a shade over an hour to complete.
But it wasn't as if she carried the team as players all the way down the lineup made meaningful contributions. Shimoda had 26 assists and eight digs, McGee had four aces, six kills and three blocks, Danielle Jodoin had eight kills, and Kara Frith had some big moments on both sides of the ball with six blocks and three kills.
Then there were the game-changing subs who came in.
With the Griffins stuck in a tough rotation in the first set and unable to get red-hot Regina server Dryden Gris off the court as the Cougars scored 11-straight points against them, Wandler subbed in both Arden Butler and Andi Krawec.
The latter put an end to the run with a great right-side kill and then served up an ace that helped shift momentum back to MacEwan. Butler's strong serving later in the set helped finish the Cougars off.
"I can't say enough about the people we have who are ready to come in and support their teammates," said Wandler. "They did a really good job of stabilizing some things, whether it was them or people around them being stabilized.
"It was about them doing their part and they did a phenomenal job coming in. That got us back on track, gave us some time to salvage that set. Then in the second and third set, that same starting group went in and just got their identity back."
Part of that was vicious serving, which had Regina completely on their heels and out of system the rest of the match. McGee, in particular, had three-straight aces in Set 2 as MacEwan just rolled unfettered to the finish.
"I think we knew we had to capitalize," she said. "They have a bit more of a struggle when it comes to their passing, so it's putting in a tough serve – that's a really important part of our game that we've been working on and building towards.
"It is a first attack, so that's where we really had that mindset of getting them out of system."
Added Wandler: "That's a big part of volleyball. That's where the game begins back behind that service line and the team did a marvellous job. We had only six errors in three sets and eight service aces, so we're on a positive side of that."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (3 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
