After three narrow set victories on Friday night, the MRU Cougars rematched against the MacEwan University Griffins on Saturday at Kenyon Court with intentions of completing the weekend sweep. Despite losing the first two sets, the Cougars came back to force a fifth set but lost 2-3 as the Griffins earned their first win of the season (19-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-21, 10-15).
The Griffins were seeking retribution after their tough loss the previous night and opened the first set on a 7-2 scoring run, prompting Shawn Sky to call a timeout. The Cougars came out of their discussion and responded with a 7-3 run of their own and eventually seized a 14-13 lead.
The two sides traded kills and errors, vying for control of the set and staying within one point of each other until the 17-17 mark. Two consecutive Griffin scores forced yet another timeout from Sky, but the Cougars could not complete the comeback as MacEwan closed the set on an 8-2 run and won 25-19.
Ryan John and Maxim Turgeon combined for eight kills without making a single attacking error in the first set, helped by Grant Hill’s 10 assists.
The Cougars opened the second set with more energy but trailed the Griffins 3-1 early. MRU refused to let MacEwan open up a big lead, depending on key digs from Matthew Clements and powerful kills from Cody Hudson and Paul Dionne to keep the game competitive.
The two sides traded points through the middle portion of the set, but MacEwan’s diving efforts to dig MRU attacks off the floor set up a series of powerful kills, giving them a 16-13 lead and prompting a Cougars timeout. The Griffins held on to their three-point lead and even expanded it to a 20-16 advantage, which forced yet another timeout from Sky.
The Cougars came out of their discussion motivated, enacting a 6-2 run to tie the game at 22-22. However, MacEwan closed the set with three unanswered scores to win 25-22 and take a 2-0 lead.
Stepanovic opened the third set with a powerful serve, but the Griffins hustled to keep the ball alive and score the first point of the set. Hudson made an energetic play to secure a kill off of a perfect assist from Grant Hill, tying the game at a point apiece.
MacEwan hustled to keep their one-point lead alive as the teams traded points, but MRU refused to go away quietly as John hustled for digs and Dionne flew to earn key kills on their way to tying the game 8-8.
Isaac Karstad gave the Cougars their first lead of the set on a flying block, but the Griffins scored immediately after to tie the game 10-10. The two sides exchanged points until a triple-block from Karstad, John and Hill gave the Cougars an 18-16 lead and forced a Griffins timeout.
MacEwan scored on their first rally coming out of their discussion, but conceded kills from Dionne and Karstad and called their second timeout of the set down 20-17. The Griffins fought their way back into the set with a 4-2 run, prompting Sky to call a timeout with the score at 22-21 in favour of MRU.
The Griffins made an attacking error on the following rally, but soon enacted a 3-1 run to tie the game at 24 points. However, a MacEwan serving error gave MRU a 25-24 lead, and on the next rally, Hill made a diving dig to set up John for a powerful strike that the Griffins failed to block. As a result, the Cougars pulled out a 26-24 set win and forced an extra set.
Dionne posted a team-high six kills in the set, but the Cougars earned their win with their incredible defense as Hudson, Hill, Karstad, and John combined for nine rejections.
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Hill set up John for the opening kill of the set, but the Griffins quickly responded by dodging an overpowered serve that sailed out of bounds and tied the game at one point apiece. Both teams traded points until the 4-4 mark. Hill and Hudson soon scored kills to give MRU an early 6-4 lead, but the Griffins refused to let the Cougars get too far ahead, keeping the point differential at three points or less as the set wore on.
MacEwan called a timeout after making an attacking error, and with the score at 15-12 in favour of the Cougars, Dionne and Hudson began taking over the set. Soon, MRU expanded the lead to 18-12 and forced yet another MacEwan timeout.
The Griffins scored three points coming out of their discussion with only one Cougar point in response, prompting a timeout from Sky. The Cougars responded with urgency, scoring immediately after the break to give themselves a 20-15 lead.
MacEwan outscored the MRU 6-5 in the final stages, but Stepanovic ended a long set-ending rally with a confident kill, earning his team a 25-21 win and forcing a fifth set.
Hudson scored five kills in the fourth set, helped by Hill’s 10 assists, but once again, MRU’s defence shined as they dug 15 MacEwan attacks to secure the set victory.
The fifth set began with both teams in a dead heat until the 6-6 mark. However, a blocking error by the Cougars followed by a floating kill from the Griffins gave MacEwan a two-point lead going into the halfway point of the set. The two teams switched sides and Sky called a timeout, advising his group to remain composed in the second half of the set.
Coming out of the timeout, Hill set up John for a cross-court spike, but the kill attempt was met with a staunch MacEwan block. The Cougars laid an onslaught of powerful strikes in the following rally, but were stumped by a series of diving digs from the Griffins as MacEwan took a 10-6 lead and forced Sky to use his last timeout of the match.
In search of their first win of the season, the Griffins refused to back off, scoring immediately following the timeout. The Cougars fought hard to try and claw back into the match, but could not defend against the Griffins’ 5-4 set-closing run. With a 15-10 victory in the fifth set, the Griffins snapped their 15-game losing streak to hand the Cougars a 2-3 match loss.
Leks Symes served up the only MRU ace of the game and contributed one dig on the defensive end in the Cougars’ set loss.
The Cougars men’s volleyball team will look to return to the win column in their next match against the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack on Friday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in Kamloops, B.C. and live on Canada West TV.
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