Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – A month before the Trinity Western Spartans won the Canada West women's volleyball championship last March, they ran into a MacEwan Griffins team peaking at the right time and were swept out of the David Atkinson Gym.
While it wasn't enough to get MacEwan into the playoffs, their 3-2 and 3-1 wins over the Spartans on Feb. 8-9 certainly sent shockwaves around the U SPORTS volleyball ranks. And gave them belief they can beat anyone on any given night.
That can serve them well as they head into the home of the No. 1-ranked team in the country, visiting the Spartans in Langley, B.C. on Friday (7 p.m. MT) and Saturday (6 p.m. MT, both games Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
As daunting as that task seems, the Spartans were No. 2 in the country at the time MacEwan beat them last year, so an upset this weekend isn't improbable.
"We took a lot of confidence out of last year and it's the same team except they have a new right side," said head coach Ken Briggs. "We know what we need to do, we've got to build on our last two weekends. This time of year, that's what it's all about.
"The home game is our biggest obstacle – it's being able to play on the road and travel."
Which is an especially tough task in TWU's gym where pre-game ceremonies often include sparklers, video boards and a ton of pomp and circumstance.
"Trinity's the hardest place to play – just the extra things they do for their team there," said Briggs. "Their pre-game ceremony really is an extravaganza. Most of the girls have played there before, so that kind of helps, but until you actually see it yourself, you don't know what you're getting yourself into."
But, if they can stick to volleyball, the 2-2 Griffins actually match up pretty well with the 4-0 Spartans.
"This might be the team that has the closest two middles to our two middles in terms of matching up," said Briggs, whose squad usually dominates their competition in the middle with McKenna Stevenson and Haley Gilfillan, but they will meet their match in TWU's Avery Heppell and Mikaelyn Sych. "They have one really quick and athletic and another one who's a really good blocker and also has offensive upside. It will be a nice matchup.
"They play a totally different style than most teams do because they've had the history of being such big teams. It's beating the block, getting balls to the back of the court – making them earn and play on defence that's the hardest part."
MacEwan comes into the match off a pair of straight-sets victories over Regina that pushed them back to .500 in the standings. Setter Kylie Schubert led the charge with 53 assists in just six sets – a solid weekend average of 8.83 per set – and will be key again if MacEwan is to pull off the upset at TWU.
"Kylie's getting more and more comfortable running the offence," said Briggs. "She's into her second year and it's what she does – she gives our hitters an opportunity, she takes chances and she follows a plan really well.
"She has really good support. When you can look at our bench and there's three coaches helping her out (including former national team setter Larissa Hauca), not including me, so she has a really sound base for success."
