Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
SASKATOON, Sask. – How they started and how they finished on Friday are the types of building blocks the Griffins men’s volleyball team is looking for as they measure their growth in a tough season.
They won the opening set over the Saskatchewan Huskies 25-22 with some of the most impressive volleyball they’ve strung together all season. And although the Huskies rattled off three-straight set wins to take the match 3-1, the Griffins’ improbable rally at the end of the match in the fourth set said a ton about their character.
They trailed Saskatchewan 20-10 and it seemed inevitable their 13th loss of the season was on its way.
“It was very much out of reach,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “In our last timeout, our assistant coach (Patrick Zimmerman) challenged the guys – ‘I don’t care how this ends, we’re playing for pride right now. I want to see something from you guys. Have pride in your performance, don’t just roll over.’
“I thought the guys really took that challenge to heart. It was such a big gap that it was going to be pretty improbable to fully come back, but I did like our response. It did show me a lot.”
With Mitchell Croft holding court at the service line, the Griffins rallied for an 8-2 run to 18-22 before the Huskies finally closed it out.
“Unfortunately, it was too little, too late in the end, but I did like our response,” said Poplawski. “I think too often this year, we’ve not responded that way. We’ve just kind of gone quietly into the night. Today, we fought.”
And that’s really something.
“When you’ve had a season like ours when the wins aren’t coming, I think you build it up so much in your head that winning is this impossible thing,” said Poplawski. “But winning is winning. You do the right thing enough and you win. Maybe our confidence is suffering a bit that way. But we’re trying find pockets of time where things are good, and we want to acknowledge that.”
The good on the night was they found another guy to get going alongside Croft, who had his usual strong attacking effort with a team-leading 14 kills and four blocks, but he was joined by Jarod Inia, who had 13 kills on a .250.
“I told Jarod that was by far the best game I’ve seen from him since he’s joined our program,” said Poplawski of the Kiwi outside hitter, who transferred to MacEwan from NAIT this season. “Obviously, he missed a lot of time with injury in the first half and it is hard coming back. I thought he was awesome tonight. He was great passing, his pipe was dynamic. That’s a big reason we won that first set because he was so efficient from the back row. He allowed us to attack 4v3. He kept us in system with his pass.
“Obviously, Mitch has carried such a gigantic load for us this year, that we keep talking about having another guy hop on and have one of those big nights and Bobby did that. He touched all parts of the game for us tonight.”
Mason Natras had 40 assists, while Spencer Loucks led the way at the net with five blocks, and Daylan Andison had six kills and 12 digs.
“We have a couple guys who gutted it out tonight – we have some aches and pains guys are battling through – but I just really give them a lot of credit for the fight they put on.”
The teams will meet again on Saturday (2 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
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