Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The MacEwan Griffins have been playing to a certain standard this season, and against their cross-town rival, Alberta Pandas, they didn't play to their capabilities.
The result was a straight sets loss (25-22, 25-22, 25-18) on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
"Our first contact wasn't very good today, and we couldn't run much in the middle and that puts a lot of stress on our outside to score a whole bunch. That wasn't good enough tonight," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler.
"We put them in system way too much. We just couldn't pass. We're not a great passing team by nature, so when teams put up a big block, we need to use that block to our advantage to score."
Mariah Bereziuk led MacEwan with 13 kills and nine digs, while Arden Butler recorded 12 kills. Payton Shimoda had 28 assists and nine digs in the loss for MacEwan who fell to 11-8 this season.
Lauren Tremblay led the Pandas with 14 kills and six digs, while first-year outside hitter Abby Guezen recorded 11 kills and seven digs as Alberta improves to 15-4 this year.
"It was a good battle, but this wasn't the outcome we wanted, and we have to come back hungrier tomorrow," said Butler.
"I feel like today we just weren't executing where we needed to. We were hitting into the block too much, and tomorrow we need to focus on using our block and seeing our shots."
MacEwan was battling from behind for a good portion of the opening set, but were able to tie it at 12-12 after a big kill from Bereziuk.
Bereziuk came through with another timely kill to tie it at 19-19, but a couple serving errors late by the Griffins allowed Alberta to earn the set win.
In the second set, MacEwan came out firing, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead, and held the lead for a good chunk of the set, but the Pandas just wouldn't go away, and eventually took their first lead of the set at 17-16. Moments later, back-to-back kills from Guezen gave Alberta a 22-19 lead, and they were able to hold off the Griffins the rest of the way.
W��| SET 2
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) February 3, 2024
An ace from Mariah Bereziuk!
The visiting @PandasVB take the second set 25-22, though and lead the match 2-0.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/JqXXcuMGgL
"I think if we win that second set, it would've really given us a confidence boost going into the next set. We had that nice lead in the second set, and letting it slip away brought us down a bit, and we were maybe a little deflated," said Butler.
MacEwan had a tough third set, as they struggled to get any string of points together to go on a run, and Alberta was able to close out the match with a 25-18 set win.
"I thought two-thirds of the match, we played some high-level volleyball. I think we need to remind ourselves that the teams that we play are going to be relentless, and at times in that third set we let ourselves down a little bit," said Wandler.
"We didn't play to the level we needed to give them that push in that third set.
"We gave them too many good opportunities to score, and they capitalized on them. It's not that we didn't play well, but they're a good team. We're good, but just not good enough."
Butler knows her team has more to give heading into Saturday's match and they intend to come out much stronger and more confident.
"We need to come out with more fire. It's not OK with how we played tonight," said Butler.
"Our effort was there, but we know we can be better than what we showed."
MacEwan and Alberta will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday (4:30 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
