Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins found a way to come through with some clutch points to close out a set win, but now they have to dig deeper to keep that momentum going.
After a really tight entertaining opening set win, the Griffins weren't able to keep it going as they fell in four sets (27-25, 17-25, 19-25, 13-25) to the visiting Brandon Bobcats on Saturday at the David Atkinson Gym.
Aidan McLennan led the Griffins with 10 kills and seven digs, while Mitchel Gorman recorded nine kills and five digs in the loss for MacEwan.
Paycen Warkentin led the Bobcats with 14 kills and two digs, while Jens Watt recorded 11 kills and nine digs in the win.
"It's been a theme this year where we've been putting ourselves into position to win sets, but not winning those crucial points to close it out," said Griffins' middle Jonah Karsten.
"Tonight, in the first set we were able to turn those points away and have that fight to the very end, but in the ones after that, we didn't get ourselves in that position where it's a late fight in the set."
Brandon took that opening set to heart and certainly raised their level of play in the second set.
MacEwan held the lead early, but once the Bobcats took a 5-4 lead, they never relinquished the lead again.
A big block from McLennan tied it at 11-11, but then a series of mini runs by the Bobcats put the set away.
"They were a real steady team, and we dipped into some valleys, and we had our peaks at times, but they were able to do what they needed to do," said Griffins' middle Seth Birkholz.
"It's a tough to come out so hot and not see the results we wanted in those next sets. We have to keep working and working to close out sets."
Brandon led the entire third set, as the Griffins kept pace, but were unable to get on any kind of run to give themselves a lead. The set was pretty chippy between the two schools, and there certainly was some frustration setting in on the side of the Griffins, and while they battled back from a 23-16 deficit to close the gap a little more, the Bobcats had all the momentum.
"We can get into our heads at times. They were beating us with some real greasy stuff, like tips and rolls and we got away from our game a bit and tried to play their style and we have to stick to what we do best," said Birkholz.
Karsten said that's when tensions started to rise was when they got that spark late in the set, but they shouldn't have to rely on the opposition to give them a boost.
"We have to find a way to get ourselves in it and create our own energy," said Karsten.
"Our fight at the end of that third set was pretty good, but in the other ones, we have to find a way to bring that energy and compete the whole match no matter what, every single point. That's difficult to do, but we have to, if we want to win matches."
MacEwan struggled to get anything going in that fourth set as Brandon took a 9-8 lead and then went on a huge 15-5 run to close out the set.
Karsten said that the result was frustrating because many of the mistakes they made were self-inflicted, especially at the service line where they committed 16 service errors.
"They were a bit better than us, but a lot of it was on our end. There were a lot of unforced errors on our side. We have to serve better than we did in that second set. We have to put the pressure on them and make them beat us, rather than us beating ourselves," said Karsten.
"There were a lot of frustrating things about the game. We have a lot of work to do."
The Griffins will have a bye next weekend, before travelling to Calgary to play Mount Royal on Dec. 1-2.
