Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — Everything looked out of sync for the MacEwan Griffins.
Serving and passing troubles wreaked havoc on the Griffins in their straight sets (25-12, 25-17, 25-19) loss to the Fraser Valley Cascades on Saturday night at the David Atkinson gymnasium.
Mariah Bereziuk led the Griffins with eight kills and five digs, while Megan Foxcroft recorded 13 digs in the loss.
Gabrielle and Lauren Attieh led the Cascades attack with 10 kills, while recording 12 and eight digs, respectively.
The loss drops the Griffins to 2-14, while the Cascades improve to 11-5.
"Until we learn how to minimize our errors, we unfortunately will be getting the same result. We just don't have the composure we need to set ourselves up for success," said Griffins interim head coach Dusty Freimark.
"Serving and passing were a struggle. We weren't hitting serve targets, making mistakes, making them at the wrong times. We would work hard to win a rally and then not make our serve.
"It's different when you miss a serve when you're up, but when you've worked really hard to side out and you miss a serve, it's hard to keep getting momentum to move forward."
The Griffins were chasing momentum all night long.
They fell behind big in all three sets, and were forced to chase the entire match.
In the opening set, they were up 2-0, but in a blink of an eye they were down 8-3.
In the second set, they were down 10-3 to start. In the third set they were down 8-3 again.
"We're not coming to the matches prepared to compete at 0-0. We dig ourselves too big of a hole, and the girls think they can come back, but when you're playing Canada West volleyball, it's pretty hard," said Freimark.
Bronwyn Ettinger passes a ball in Saturday's match (Eduardo Perez photo).
For the second straight week, the Griffins were without starting setter Payton Shimoda, and missing her presence on the court is a big loss, but overall, the Griffins just looked flat.
They finished the match with just 17 kills, and they made 17 attack errors.
"We were always in trouble, so we weren't hitting in system balls. It's tough, we miss Payton, but when you're hitting trouble balls all the time, you're not going to get the attack efficiency you need to be successful," said Freimark.
In the third set, despite being down big, the Griffins did fight their way back into the set. A kill from Emma Brooks, made it 11-9. Both teams traded points back and forth, and the Griffins were in striking distance, but they couldn't get on a scoring run.
UFV made it 20-14, and then cruised to the set and match win.
"It's frustrating. At the end of the day, we're not finishing on balls that we should be and that's where the frustration is. Even if we're passing well, we need to finish on the ball. Even if it's not on the first kill over the net, we need that execution in the end," said Bereziuk.
"We're lacking consistency right now, and that's something we need to really focus on the rest of the season."
