MacEwan Athletics and UBC Athletics
VANCOUVER – Struggling with the strong serving game of the UBC Thunderbirds, who amassed 15 aces in three sets, the MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team fell 3-0 in Canada West action on Friday night.
The Griffins gave the two-time defending U SPORTS champions a good test in the third set as they reached 20 points first, up 20-19, but ultimately fell 25-17, 25-11, 25-22.
"We were playing against the two-time defending national champions and you're down half your starting lineup, so you can only ask so much," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "I thought we tried to play with as much assertiveness as we could on things we can control like our serving, our tenacity on defence and when we had opportunities to swing at the ball. So, from that standpoint, I was happy much of the match.
"That only goes so far. We just couldn't control the first contact well enough passing wise. That was ultimately our downfall tonight."
With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-9, while UBC, who are ranked first in the nation, improve to 9-0.
Emelie Silovs shone for the Thunderbirds with a career-high seven kills on a .636 hitting percentage, along with two blocks and two aces. Olivia Furlan moved from libero to outside hitter due to UBC's ongoing injury woes and put up seven kills, six digs, three blocks and two aces. Trinity Solecki led the team in kills with eight and also had four digs.
Arden Butler recorded eight kills and four digs to lead MacEwan, while Alyshia Bryks put up six kills, six digs, three blocks and three aces.
The Griffins were already down starters Danielle Jodoin and Kara Frith due to injuries and starting setter Payton Shimoda was also sidelined with an injury suffered against Winnipeg at home two weeks ago. Backup setter Renee Jodoin finished with 17 assists.
"Renee did a really good job coming in for the balls that we gave her," said Wandler. "They're a very hard serving team and for the balls we did pass to Renee, she did a really good job reading the play. We're quite happy with Renee's job."
Wandler is promising a couple lineup changes for Saturday's rematch between the teams (7 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
"There's going to be a couple subs in the lineup," he said. "We'll make a couple switches in the lineup to see if that sparks some things.
"It was a good environment," he added. "You have to play in it to see what kind of characters you have. A lot of those questions were answered for us today."
