Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins fighting the game of momentum right now.
They showed a lot of compete and battle in their home opener against the Saskatchewan Huskies, but struggled to string some big scoring runs together in a three-set loss (25-22, 25-20, 25-20), Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Mitchel Gorman led MacEwan with 11 kills and six digs, while Daylan Andison recorded eight kills and four digs in the loss as MacEwan fell to 0-3 this season.
Isiah Mamer led Saskatchewan with 11 kills, while Graham Emmett chipped in with 10 kills and five digs as the Huskies improved to 3-0.
"We're putting ourselves in those positions, but we're coming out on the wrong end. We have to learn to execute better," said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski.
"Often times, we're stopping our own run. When we have opportunities, we have to seize them. Right now, we're making it too easy to play against us at times."
MacEwan and the Huskies had an entertaining opening set that saw four different lead changes, and the score was tied 16 times, as both teams tried to set the tone early in the match.
The Griffins fell short in that opening set, and while they put forward an impressive effort in the first set loss, they tried desperately to try and grab momentum and run with it in the second and third sets, but the Huskies had all the momentum from that opening set win, and controlled most of the play, the rest of the way.
"We're pushing, and we're getting into the 20s, but the other team right now after three matches in, are able to push and find that extra level. We have to figure out a way to be able to push teams at those key points," said Poplawski.
MacEwan was dealt a couple of injuries to core members of their team, and that forced the coaching staff to put some different lineup combinations on the court.
"We found out about one injury at 3 p.m. today, and I have to give our guys a lot of credit," said Poplawski.
"We threw a lot at them, and there was a lot of adversity, and yeah, there were mistakes made tonight, but I thought they showed a lot of good things."
Ultimately, after a strong opening set, the Huskies capitalized on every little mistake MacEwan made, and didn't allow the Griffins to go on any big run. They led the second set from start to finish, and once they took a 6-5 lead in the third set, they didn't give it back.
"We put a good effort forward, but we need to capitalize on the little things. We made some errors we can't make in certain situations and Saskatchewan played good. They put us in trouble quite a few times," said Griffins libero Daniel Hebert.
"When you give up three or four points in a row, it's a battle to get them back. It's so important to not let teams go on spurts. At the end of the day, that's what you lose by those little spurts."
If MacEwan can put forward the type of effort they showed in the opening set more often, things will start to turn around for the Griffins.
Despite the straight sets loss, the team is sticking together and working through their struggles.
"I thought we cleaned up a lot of things, and defensively we were solid. Overall, we stuck to our system," said Andison.
"I thought there were a lot of positives, especially because we had quite a different look out there (personnel-wise). We definitely need to work on things, but I believe we can get the job done against them."
MacEwan will look to earn their first win of the season, when they finish their weekend series against Saskatchewan on Saturday (4:30 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
