MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Max Vriend is MacEwan Athletics' first star of the week after leading the Griffins men's volleyball team to its first victory of the season last Saturday at Manitoba.
The third-year middle blocker set a new school record for the most blocks in a Canada West game with 12, narrowly missing the top 10 performances in conference history.
Other athletes recognized during the past week include second star Karly Edgar of the women's volleyball team and third star Marc-Olivier Daigle of the men's hockey team.
Both Vriend and Edgar are appearing on the three stars list for the first time this season, while Daigle is making his second appearance, having been named second star on Sept. 19.
1st STAR: Max Vriend, MB, men's volleyball (Barrhead, AB, third-year, Commerce)
Over a weekend road trip to Manitoba, Vriend set a new MacEwan University record with 12 blocks in a match – a mark he posted to lead the Griffins to their first victory of the season, 3-2 over the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday. That's the most blocks by anyone in a Canada West men's volleyball match this season and is a mark that sits just shy of the conference's top-10 list all time (13 makes the cut). It's also not far off the Canada West record of 16 blocks, set by Saskatchewan's Michael Wiens in 2007.
The fact Vriend added 12 kills on a top rate efficiency just shows how much of a factor he was in leading the Griffins past the reigning Canada West runners-up.
For the season, Vriend is second in Canada West with 1.29 blocks/set with 31 of them in six matches (tied for eighth). He's also 12th in the conference in service aces/set with 0.38 and among the top 40 in Canada West in kills and kills/set.
Vriend will lead the Griffins (1-7) into Vancouver for matches against UBC (7-1) on Nov. 24-25.
2nd STAR: Karly Edgar, LB, women's volleyball (Sherwood Park, AB, fifth-year, Arts)
After recording 20 digs in just three sets on Friday, the fifth-year libero had one of the most dominant dig games in Canada West women's volleyball history on Saturday. Edgar tied a conference record, becoming the fifth player in Canada West history with 35 digs in a women's volleyball match. The mark also broke her own MacEwan University record of 32 digs that she set during a match against Winnipeg on Jan. 9, 2016.
For the season, Edgar leads Canada West with 4.33 digs per set, recording 117 of them (eighth-best) in just seven matches.
She will lead the Griffins (0-8) out on the road for a pair of matches at defending USPORTS champion UBC (6-2) in Vancouver on Nov. 24-25.
Karly Edgar had 35 digs against Manitoba last Saturday to break her own school record and tie the Canada West mark for the stat (Chris Piggott photo).
3rd STAR: Marc-Olivier Daigle, G, men's hockey (Delson, QC, third-year, Arts)
On a weekend when MacEwan's goaltending stopped 53 of 54 UAlberta-Augustana Vikings shots in a pair of victories over their ACAC men's hockey rival, Daigle earned his first shutout of the campaign. The third-year goaltender backstopped the Griffins to a 6-0 win over the Vikings in Camrose on Saturday, making 28 saves for the goose-egg.
This came a night after counterpart Christopher Wray stopped 25 of 26 shots in a 2-1 MacEwan win at the Downtown Community Arena. For the weekend, Griffins goalies combined for a .981 save percentage.
Daigle, who leads the Griffins with a 2.08 goals against average and is tied with Wray for a .927 save percentage, now has three shutouts in his MacEwan career after posting two of them last season. He will take a shutout streak of 110:07 into action at Briercrest this weekend. That's second-best in MacEwan's recorded history for the stat (although it wasn't tracked prior to the 2016-17 season).
Marc-Olivier Daigle earned his first shutout of the season in leading the Griffins to a 6-0 win over UAlberta-Augustana last Saturday (Matthew Jacula photo).
