Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – You know it's a good preseason schedule when the easiest opponent on the docket won a national championship last year.
The MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team will welcome the Lakeland College Rustlers for matches on Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (3 p.m., both David Atkinson Gym) just six months after they captured the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national title.
"I think (our preseason schedule) progressively gets a lot more difficult as we go," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "Obviously, Lakeland's no slouch being the CCAA national champions, and they play a certain style that will have us play a very disciplined style of game."
But it only gets tougher.
MacEwan will head to Calgary on Sept. 22-23 for matches against the Mount Royal University Cougars, who finished second in Canada West with a 19-5 record in 2022-23, won silver in the conference playoffs and claimed the consolation final at U SPORTS nationals.
"Going down to Calgary to visit Mount Royal, it will be a team that's going to look a little different than last year," said Wandler. "We'll see if we can compete with the physicality that Mount Royal brings."
After that, the Griffins will conclude their non-conference slate with a visit to the Vancouver area Oct. 13-14 to face defending Canada West champion and U SPORTS silver medalist Trinity Western and defending U SPORTS champion UBC.
"We're off to the West Coast playing some of the top teams in the country," said Wandler. "It's going to give us a real good litmus test of what we've built during the preseason and how we're going to play moving into that first weekend versus Calgary."
The Griffins will open the Canada West regular season on Oct. 20-21 at home vs. the Dinos.
After spending the last two seasons as a young team learning the ropes of university volleyball, the Griffins are beginning to turn into a seasoned team ready to challenge for a playoff spot.
They boast 13 returning players, including five of six returning starters from their final game in 2022-23, so it will be about continuing what they built last season.
"They're definitely looking forward to what their possibilities are," said Wandler, who is entering his first season at MacEwan. "They have another year of experience. They did a lot of learning the last two years.
"Now we've got to take that learning and we have to implement a type of game that's going to allow us not just to be competitive but allow us to execute and fulfil some of those aspirations that they most definitely want to see in themselves."
