Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Facing the third-ranked team in U SPORTS for the second weekend this semester, the MacEwan Griffins men's volleyball team will have many metrics to measure success.
While wins against cross-town rival Alberta are the goal, at the very least head coach Brad Poplawski would like to see his team push the Golden Bears more than when they suffered a pair of straight-sets defeats to them on Nov. 5-6 without reaching 20 points in any set.
MacEwan (1-5) travels across town to face Alberta (6-0) at the Saville Centre on Friday (7:30 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m., both Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
"It's obviously a unique year in that we've already played them in league," said Poplawski. "When I look back on this weekend, I'll want to compare it to the first time we played them. First of all, we'll focus on ourselves, as far as our numbers, attack, passing, defence – the stats we look at – if we can somehow be improved from the first time we played them. But I also (want to see) our response to things because I thought at times (on Nov. 5-6) we carried stuff on too long."
The key, he said, is the mental ability to regroup and move on after the physical Golden Bears attack with thundering kills and defend with big blocks.
"Of importance is our attitude, our demeanour – the way we react … they're a big team, they do big things. When they get a kill, it's a big kill. Are we able to stay patient? Are we able to not let them doing something carry for three, four or five plays?
"I think we look at (success) in a lot of different ways and try to push them, which is very hard to do," he added. "Watching them play Calgary (in two 3-0 wins last weekend), they're better than we saw a month ago. The challenge for us is I think we are improved, but can we show that? Can we make it a little harder for them at times?"
MacEwan is coming in off their first win of the season – a 3-1 triumph over Mount Royal University last Saturday where they had multiple players contributing to their success. Setter Alexander Lyndon was able to spread the ball around and keep the Cougars guessing.
"I thought Alex ran a good game plan and that obviously stems from passing," said Poplawski. "I thought he made some good choices, distributed the ball and then our attackers were working hard on being more varied."
And they continue to work on that.
"We sometimes get in the rut of just hitting low seam," said Poplawski. "Big teams are just going to block that all game. So, vary your attack.
"Really with U of A, how hard they serve, it's just going to come down to our passing this weekend," he added. "Can we maintain a certain level of passing to try to give our offence a chance?"
