Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
No matter what the stakes of the competition are, any time you can pose at centre court with a trophy, it's a momentous occasion.
For the MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team, that moment happened on Sunday afternoon in the Winnipeg Wesmen's gym after they captured the Unruh Realty Invitational preseason tournament with a win over Canada West rival Manitoba in the final.
"This tournament's been around for a long time because the size of the trophy that was presented to them was pretty unreal," said Griffins head coach Ken Briggs.
MacEwan went undefeated in five matches over the weekend, culminating in a 3-1 win over the Bisons (23-25, 25-13, 25-14, 28-26).
"Now the experience shows through a little bit. We played five different teams from three different conferences and put five wins together," said Briggs of his now veteran team that also knocked off Canada West rivals Winnipeg and Regina, OUA's Brock and AUS' Acadia. "
"We knew that Manitoba was going to be a really good match and it was a terrific way to end. The score in the final set was 28-26. Those kind of moments – where maybe last year we didn't come through – this year, they really believed that they could.
"We played well. We had so many good performances by different people at different times."
Chief among those was third-year middle Haley Gilfillan, who won the Nikki Redekop MVP Award.
"All three of our middles have played fantastic all preseason," said Briggs. "Haley's been probably our best player since the beginning of the season. She doesn't get a ton of recognition sometimes. She's really turned it on. To have her recognized at the tournament was really nice."
The most important takeaway for the Griffins out of the event was the fact they were able to string some wins together against teams they'll need to beat to make the Canada West playoffs this season.
"That gives us a good base of where we're at and where they're at going into the season," Briggs said. "Those are the teams in our bubble that we'll be competing with for (position)."
It's a key victory for a Griffins team eager to take the next step.
"That was the biggest thing for them after three years was to put a little run of wins together and feel confident," Briggs said.
The Griffins will open the season with a visit to Thompson Rivers on Oct. 20-21.
