Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – No matter how hard they tried to right the ship, nothing was working for the MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team during their visit to Thompson Rivers University.
They didn't look like themselves all weekend and wound up on the wrong end of a surprising weekend sweep. Their 3-0 loss Saturday (25-17, 25-22, 25-14) came on the heels of a straight-sets defeat a night earlier.
While MacEwan entered the weekend 18 points ahead of TRU in the Canada West standings, they exit with more questions than answers with their record falling to 9-7 after their fourth-straight defeat. TRU is now 5-9.
"It was not a very consistent job on our part," said MacEwan head coach Chris Wandler. "I have to take responsibility for that. It's my job to get this team prepared and we're not at the level we were before Christmas and that's a head coach thing, that's a Wandler thing.
"I have to do a better job of getting these athletes prepared and ready to play. We're in a funk right now that we need to get out of starting on Monday at practice. There's not much to be said. We just weren't good enough all weekend. That falls on the head coach. That's my responsibility."
Mariah Bereziuk led the Griffins with eight kills and three digs, while Sarah McGee chipped in four kills, five blocks and an ace.
Brooklyn Olfert topped TRU's efforts with 16 kills and four aces, while Ama Palkovicova had 11 kills and 11 digs.
While the serve-pass game haunted the Griffins on Friday, that wasn't as much the case on Saturday, but Wandler noted they just didn't play their typical confident, aggressive style.
"We didn't serve as many out of bounds, but we didn't serve with any intent," he said. "It looked like we were really hesitant to play with any type of aggression. It just seemed like we were a team looking for the other team to make a ton of mistakes and that didn't happen."
The Griffins will remain on the road next weekend, visiting Winnipeg (6-8), another team chasing them in a battle for a playoff position.
