Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
VANCOUVER, B.C. – With improved attacking efficiency, solid progression from their young trio of passers and another big game from Daylan Laszlo, the MacEwan Griffins men’s volleyball team gave the U SPORTS No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds a test on Saturday night.
Yes, it was a straight sets loss for MacEwan, but they were in every set before some runs against cost them the 3-0 defeat (25-20, 25-18, 25-17).
“That’s exactly what it was,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “We were there and they would go on a run. Just learning how to be consistent for a full match. I think there’s still a lot of variability in our game. We’d give up a run of three and side out the fourth ball. ‘OK, why couldn’t we do that the first time?’
“It’s not playing with more urgency, it’s just intent. It ties into that decision making, knowing when to be aggressive. We have to punt and let our defence set up. With such a young lineup, I think we’re still in the process of learning that at this level.”
With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-14, while the Thunderbirds improve to 13-1.
“The thing about UBC – they’re No. 1 in the country for a reason – they just keep coming at you,” said Poplawski. “It almost feels like they’re suffocating you. You have to learn how to play when a team is consistently applying pressure because you know they’re not going to make mistakes.
“It’s sort of a mental battle almost: ‘OK, I did that well and now I have to do that 25 more times tonight.’ If you haven’t been in those situations and, let’s be honest, our entire lineup out there right now, hasn’t because other than Seth (Birkholz), they’re all either new to the program or new to starting because of the injuries.”
Laszlo, now in his second season and second weekend of 2026 after returning to the lineup off a lengthy injury, was outstanding in pacing the Griffins with 13 kills on a .308 hitting percentage.
“He led us offensively again tonight, chipped in with some pipe kills, a couple good blocks, some good swings on the left,” said Poplawski. “It was good to see him build off last week and sustain it for two days. Some weekends you have one good day. He was even better today, so it was exciting to see him keep building and growing off his performances.”
Laszlo is also one third of the Griffins’ passing trio, which also includes rookie libero Solomon Flindall and rookie outside hitter Ethan Pavone.
“Watching our three passers rebound from last week and be quite a bit better this weekend was huge progression,” said Poplawski. “We want them to keep growing on that. As a coach, I’m really happy I have two first years and a second year in a passing lineup and they’re growing as individuals and as a passing unit together.
“It was fun to watch them work this weekend against a very good serving team.”
That gave setter Kenneth Ang a chance to have success and he was solid in producing 25 assists. Overall, the Griffins’ attacking efficiency in the match was .238, a big improvement over the .000 they posted on Friday.
“I think on video we identified some of our decision making and just too many pure errors,” said Poplawski. “They’re a big block and I think we were trying to shy away from it too much instead of challenging it. They had a couple difference lineups out there tonight, too. So, it was partly that. It wasn’t all their guns full time.
“But I thought Kenny distributed the ball well. Our passers did a good job getting him the ball and I thought our hitters were a little more patient. Our decision-making was better. It’s still something we’re working on, but I thought they made better decisions, for the most part tonight when they were swinging.”
The Griffins will be back home for the next two weekends, hosting Manitoba Jan. 23-24 and Brandon Jan. 30-31.