Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Showing off a balanced attack that featured four players with eight kills each, the MacEwan Griffins finished off the Brandon Bobcats in straight sets in Canada West women's volleyball action on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Hailey Cornelis, Haley Gilfillan, McKenna Stevenson and Carly Weber each hit eight, while Lauren Holmes added seven kills as the Griffins won 25-19, 25-15, 26-24 to improve to 5-4 in the standings. Still searching for their first win of the season, Brandon falls to 0-9.
"Obviously with that balanced attack you've got to give Kylie (Schubert) some credit," said MacEwan head coach Ken Briggs of his setter who recorded 37 assists in three sets. "She spread it out really nicely. Those aren't flashy (kill numbers), but balanced."
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MacEwan was in complete control early as Brandon struggled to mount any sort of consistent attack with .059 and .038 attacking efficiency, respectively, in the first two sets. But after Brandon's attack showed some life in Set 3 (.217), the home side needed an inspiring rally from 23-20 down to secure the sweep.
"The positive part about that is how many years have we spent where we would have let that one go? This group just came in and I didn't even have to talk to them," noted Briggs. "They know what to do and to their credit they did.
"I guess that's what maturity does for you. We've been in every situation over the years and even this year we've come from behind quite a few times. This group, they believe in each other. Even if it's not quite perfect, they know what to do."
Cornelis had five of her eight kills in the opening set, which ended off a sneaky Schubert dump shot.
In Set 2, MacEwan went on a 12-3 run in the middle to open up a 23-12 lead and finished off the Bobcats on their first set point opportunity when Gilfillan and Weber combined to block Ravyn Wiebe.
Just when it looked like the Bobcats would go quietly into the night, though, their offence put the Griffins into some serve-receive trouble in Set 3 and Wiebe caught fire, en route to a game-high 12 kills.
Brandon took a commanding 23-20 lead before MacEwan suddenly righted the ship and rattled off four-straight points behind Weber's serve. Schubert's dump shot looked like it would end it, but Brandon libero Caitlin Le, who had a game-high 16 digs, came out of nowhere to keep the match alive.
"She's the best libero I've seen in our conference and she does some amazing stuff for us," said Brandon head coach Lee Carter. "That last point at 24 to come all that way to get the ball that she did, it's phenomenal. Everybody's just got to be able to find that read and that vision and know what's going on across the net like she does."
MacEwan ended the match on Holmes' kill off the block and completed a night of solid attacking numbers - .257, .258 and .268, respectively, in all three sets, while dominating the team block numbers 9.0 to 4.0.
"I was happy with our performance coming out of a bye week," said Briggs. "The stats made it look way better than I felt at times."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (5 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
