Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
SASKATOON, Sask. – In search of a formula that will lead to some success for the struggling MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team, interim head coach Dusty Freimark essentially put her lineup into a blender for Saturday's rematch with the Saskatchewan Huskies.
In came several new faces, out went many others.
The result still never came as Saskatchewan cruised to a 3-0 win (25-20, 25-20, 25-14), but there were enough glimpses of positive moments with some of the newcomers for Freimark to think the experiment could bear fruit eventually.
"If I had a positive to take out of it, it's that we tried some new athletes out on the court and had some more moments of what volleyball should look like," said Freimark.
With the result, MacEwan falls to 0-4 in the Canada West standings, while Saskatchewan improves to 2-2.
"I think we're all pretty frustrated right now," said Freimark. "The ride home is going to be practice planning and trying to find ways to pull out the fight and the battle and the grit in these athletes."
Shifted to the left side as part of the experiment, Mariah Bereziuk still led the Griffins in kills (as she's done in all but one match this season), recording 10 to go along with two service aces and five digs.
Ultimately, though, the Griffins were undone by multiple errors. Their overall hitting efficiency (.032) was brought down by negative numbers in the third set (-.115).
"It was just the mistakes we're making," said Freimark of their downfall. "We made way too many mistakes and it just cost us our momentum. Whether it's a missed serve or an opportunity with a free ball, we're just not taking care of first contact right now.
"We made mistakes with several free balls," she added. "Our passing wasn't great. I don't think they did anything different than the night before. They had a couple new athletes on the court tonight as well. They just outbattled us."
MacEwan's inability to pass made life really tough on setter Payton Shimoda, who had just 14 assists.
"Our setter becomes pretty predictable when you're not taking care of first contact," said Freimark.
"I'm a little bit perplexed right now."
The team will return home to regroup before hitting the road again for a weekend series at UBC on Nov. 4-5.
