Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Max Vriend heads into the final four matches of his storied MacEwan Griffins men's volleyball career with a chance to further etch his name in the Canada West record books.
After recording a combined 30 kills in two matches against Winnipeg last weekend, the fifth-year senior outside hitter moved into the top-20 in Canada West career points with 1207. It's not out of the realm of possibility he could crack the top-15 before he's done.
Vriend's already in the top 15 with 313 career blocks, while his 946 career kills has him just 86 shy of the top-20 in conference history.
"He's having an absolutely historic career," said MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. "He's already in the top-20 in points, and he has a good chance to go into the top 20 in kills all-time. The amazing thing with that is he played the first three years of his career in the middle, so you're only playing half the game. Also, he's putting up these numbers with, due to our team, everyone keying on him. He's always got four or six hands in his face.
"It's really impressive the career he's put together. Him and I know what he needs to do these last two weekends to get to a pretty special number. We've done the math and we know where we're at. That's not necessarily a focus for us, but I think it would be really nice capper for his career. He's meant everything to this program."
The Griffins (2-16) will visit the UBC-Okanagan Heat (0-16) on Friday (9 p.m. MT) and Saturday (7 p.m. MT, both Canada West TV presented by Co-op) – a battle of the two teams at the bottom of the conference standings.
"They probably haven't had the season that Brad (Hudson) their coach has wanted, so they probably have this one circled on their calendar for a while, saying 'we've got a really good chance to get a result this weekend,' " said Poplawski. "My thing for our guys is 'can we match their intensity?' We haven't had the season we wanted either, so I think both teams are looking at this as a chance to go get some results."
To end up in the win column, the Griffins will have to navigate the challenge of playing on the road on back-to-back weekends after just returning from a trip to Winnipeg.
"I think the back-to-back weeks on the road is always a grind for the athletes," said Poplawski. "You're limited in what you can do in practice with the flights and travel. Just adjusting to that. It's a busier schedule.
"Their gym has been historically tough for us to play in – different currents in there, it's cold. It's just a place we've got to prepare for."
MacEwan's success also lies in them finding some secondary offensive production. Vriend has accounted for 39.6 per cent of the Griffins' kills this season – the greatest effect any attacking player has had on their team in the entire conference.
"It's to that point where he just does well," said Poplawski. "That's what we expect from Max. That's probably the first time in my coaching career here that we've had a guy where I know what we're going to get every night.
"That repeatability is huge, whereas the rest of our team is up and down. That's basically the story of our entire season. We've only had one guy going. Unfortunately, on two nights (in Winnipeg), we just didn't have enough. You can't win in this league with only one guy."
MacEwan's final home action of the season is set for Feb. 7-8 vs. Thompson Rivers University in the David Atkinson Gym.
