Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With how they last left things on the court – limping into the semester break on the heels of a tough 3-0 home loss to Manitoba – the MacEwan Griffins men's volleyball team has spent the past week of preparation focused on themselves.
That's not to say they aren't watching film and putting their best strategies in place to try and shut down this weekend's opponent, the Saskatchewan Huskies, but head coach Brad Poplawski would like to see their own house in order first.
"We're almost at the point where we can't worry about other teams," he said. "We're not taking care of our own stuff. Since we've been back, it's been way more focused on us. I think we haven't been doing the things we need to do. Our focus has really been on ourselves, trying to solidify some stuff because our level hasn't been good enough.
"We know they're going to be a really tough opponent, but I'm more focused on 'can we do some things better?' I think there's a lot of room for improvement. Since we've been back, we've had six practices, so it's been pretty quick after almost a month off."
There's still time to salvage a season that's been sliding the wrong way for the Griffins for a while now. Ever since opening the season with a win at Mount Royal on Oct. 18, they've suffered nine-straight losses and enter the second semester at 1-9, six points back of the eighth and final playoff spot.
The stretch run starts in Saskatoon this weekend where they'll meet the 6-6 Huskies on Friday (7 p.m. MT) and Saturday (4 p.m. MT, both on Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
"They're huge. Probably one of the biggest teams in Canada West," said Poplawski of the Huskies, who enter the weekend on a modest one-game winning streak after besting Thompson Rivers back on Nov. 30. "They have a great setter who spent time with FTC in the national team. They're just a really good team."
MacEwan boasts one of the top players in Canada West in fifth-year senior Max Vriend, who is second in the conference in kills per set (4.06). But amid a wash of untimely injuries that has the coaching staff forced into ever increasing roster adjustments, a balanced attack has eluded them.
The break didn't give them much relief on the injury front, so part of their internal preparation has been about tweaking things further to try and ignite some secondary offence.
"Other than Max offensively, we haven't been scoring," said Poplawski. "So, we're trying to get some of the other guys going and moving some things around to try and open up other guys because we need more offence from everyone else."
