Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Sometimes in volleyball, it's not that the momentum changed, but how it changed that makes all the difference.
In control of Thursday night's proceedings early and on the verge of going up 2-0 in their first Canada West women's volleyball playoff match in program history, the MacEwan Griffins conceded a stunning late second-set 10-0 run to lose 25-20.
Inspired by stealing a set they never led in, the visiting Thompson Rivers University WolfPack rattled off two more set victories to claim a comfortable 3-1 win (18-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-19) that puts them a victory away from the conference's final four.
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"It's obviously good," said TRU head coach Chad Grimm of netting the first victory in the best-of-three affair. "It's going to be a tough series. We threw the first punch, but we know all too well that things can change. Last year we went into Alberta and won the first match. They turned the tides and won the next two. Hopefully, we've learned a lesson from that, but the good news is no matter what happens, we've got two shots.
"We need to come out tomorrow and play like it's the deciding game because you win two and you move on. We're going to have a challenging match tomorrow."
Game 2 of the Canada West quarter-final series is slated for Friday (6 p.m.), while Game 3, if necessary, will go Saturday (5 p.m., both David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
On Thursday, MacEwan seemed to be in full control, winning the opening set easily after building a 12-4 lead, surviving a push-back from the WolfPack and closing it out on their third set point opportunity – a kill by Mckenna Stevenson.
The Griffins never trailed in the second set in getting to the 20-point mark first and seemed on their way up 20-15. But a service error from MacEwan sent Olga Savenchuk to the line for TRU and she never left it for nine-straight points, putting the home side out of system and eroding their confidence.
Clearly, it was the TSN turning point of the match.
"It's just learning how to play in the playoffs," said MacEwan head coach Ken Briggs. "You're playing a playoff team – a team that's been there year after year. We showed we were a little fragile.
"We came out like fire and everything was perfect. You see the experience on the other side when they weather that storm and they take their lumps. I figured 'now we're going to get into volleyball.' And we faltered under pressure."
Part of that was due to TRU's strong serving and serve-receive game, which was especially apparent late in Set 3 when they took the clutch points – winning it when Stevenson's quick-hitter in the middle sailed wide – and throughout Set 4, in which the visitors cruised to a definitive win and wrapped it up on Kendra Finch's kill.
Finch scored a match-high 14 kills, Savenchuk had a match-high 25 digs to go with six blocks and Avery Pottle had six kills and three aces. But ultimately, the player who drove the bus to a win for the WolfPack was 6-foot-3 middle Kseniya Kocyigit, who had 11 kills, eight blocks and an ace and was too much for the Griffins on this night.
"I thought we were a little bit tentative and little bit undisciplined there in the beginning, but she's calm, she's energetic, she's bringing the girls up," said Grimm of his first-year star from Belarus. "She's been in big matches before. She made some plays for us when she needed to and obviously that helped relax the girls (and we started) to make some plays and things looked more positive."
Stevenson led the Griffins with 13 kills and five blocks, while Hailey Cornelis added 12 kills and 14 digs. The Griffins weren't the same team without kills leader Lauren Holmes, though, who was injured at the end of their final regular season match against TRU on Feb. 8. Rookie Mariah Bereziuk – who came into the match with just four Canada West sets under her belt – filled in admirably for Holmes with six kills and eight digs.
"Mariah did OK – I'm happy for her," said Briggs. "But we had just a few too many people who weren't fully engaged through the whole match.
"All the pressure times of the game was when our passing faltered," he added. "They look at the stats and go, 'hey we passed pretty well.' But not when it was time to. Our serving – we had 11 missed serves and only three aces. That's not us.
"Disappointing, but if we're as resilient as we've been all year? Let's go and see what we can do."
MacEwan rookie Mariah Bereziuk had seen limited action in just four sets all season, but was pressed into action against a tough-blocking TRU team in the opening game of the playoffs on Thursday night due to an injury to starter Lauren Holmes (Eduardo Perez photo).
