Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Forget the records.
If you had walked into the David Atkinson Gym not knowing anything about the Canada West standings and watched the MacEwan Griffins and Mount Royal Cougars do battle in men's volleyball action on Friday, you'd be hard pressed to tell which team was ranked fourth in the country and which one will miss the playoffs after this weekend.
Little separated the foes in as epic a straight sets result as you'll see – 25-22, 29-27, 27-25 in favour of the Cougars.
The result runs MRU's record to 18-5 and MacEwan's to 4-19.
"If you didn't know anything about them, you'd have said the teams were pretty even," agreed MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. "Obviously, they have Chris Byam on the right. When they're in trouble, that's the guy they go to, and we knew that. At times, we touched him pretty well, but at times he showed his class and got key kills for them."
Byam was the difference in a close match, recording a match-high 18 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, adding two service aces, six digs and a block in accounting for 20.5 points. Jacob Van Geel added 10 kills and 10 digs.
"But I thought it was a good battle and I was really proud of our guys' effort and resilience to battle back, especially that second set being down, to work our way back into it with some good block defence," said Poplawski. "I'm definitely encouraged by that.
"It would have just been nice to capitalize on our opportunities and that's the disappointing part. We had chances and we just didn't convert, but I think our guys have to be proud of that effort tonight."
MacEwan was led by Alexei Walisser with 14 kills on a .300 percentage, and he added nine digs and three blocks.
Jefferson Morrow chipped in 10 kills to reach a nice milestone of 500 for his Griffins' career.
M��| 500!��
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) February 18, 2023
Congrats to Jefferson Morrow on getting his 500th career @CanadaWest kill on this one late in Set 3 this evening vs. @MRUCougars.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/iuMSUyotRE
"He's been a good offensive weapon for us – four years in the program but three years on court," said Poplawski. "He started in our program with under 15 attempts a lot of nights and he did a good job with the volume he was getting, and we expanded that role. Now, he's a guy both of our setters are comfortable setting any time in the match regardless of matchups.
"I think 500 is definitely a feather in his cap and I'm happy he got to that this year. We want him to add to that tomorrow, that's for sure."
MacEwan put some heat on MRU midway through the first set, forcing them to call a timeout down 15-12, but the Cougars spring-boarded off that to reach 20 first (20-18). The Griffins dodged two set points with a Walisser kill and Morrow ace but Max Haronga eventually ended it.
The resiliency the Griffins showed in Set 2 fired up a raucous home crowd as they had three-straight blocks – two by Seth Birkholz and another by Walisser – to come back from the brink (22-24 to 25-24). That led to three set point opportunities for MacEwan, but Byam and Haronga had side-out kills to save the Cougars before Byam put away the decisive point.
M��| SET 2
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) February 18, 2023
What a battle!
Alexei Walisser nets @MacEwanU's third-straight block as Griffins recover from 24-22 deficit.
Both teams had three set points, but @MRUCougars prevail 29-27 to take a 2-0 lead.@CanadaWest #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/dOfM9MJxLz
Set 3 was MacEwan's to lose for most of it as they led 10-6 and 13-8 before MRU rallied late to take a 24-22 advantage. Yet again, though, the Griffins refused to go quietly, and it took the Cougars four match points to put them away, finally ending the evening when Walisser's attack went too long.
In the end, there were a few more errors like that on MacEwan's side than MRU's and that was the difference.
"I think so," agreed Poplawski. "They're obviously ranked No. 3 in the country for a reason. I loved our guys' battle, loved our fight. We gave ourselves opportunities, we had set points and we just couldn't convert. They just made plays.
"I thought our passing was excellent today," he added. "Dan (Hebert), our libero, was brilliant passing and Mitch (Gorman) and Jeff (Morrow) around him, so that was good. They gave Mason (Natras) an opportunity to run his offence. They just found a way and got some timely side-outs. We got in some long rallies them, but just didn't capitalize. But we gave ourselves some opportunities against an excellent team."
The rematch goes on Saturday (4 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV) in the regular season finale for both teams.
