After a resounding three-set sweep on Friday night, the Cougars women’s volleyball team hosted the MacEwan University Griffins on Kenyon Court on Saturday evening. MRU’s energy and effort were off the charts all night long, helping them sweep their weekend series against the MacEwan University Griffins with a second consecutive 3-0 win (25-20, 25-23, 25-21) and sixth straight win overall.
With revenge on their minds, the Griffins opened up the first set with an ace and two kills to give themselves a 3-0 lead. However, the Cougars soon woke up and responded with a 4-0 run that included two Sydney Scatcherd kills and an Emma Boyd ace.
As the set wore on, the two sides traded points with the Griffins maintaining a narrow lead. However, the momentum of the set swung in favour of the Cougars late in the set; the Griffins attempted to secure a kill with a precise floating shot, but Bronwynn Davies-Neira dove to dig out the attack. With the ball levitating in the air, Lexi Herrod sprung into action and set Grace Coulter up to hit the ball into the Griffins zone.
That extra hustle gave Emma Boyd the energy to force a kill into the centre of the MacEwan defence, causing a Griffins timeout. MRU came out of the break having not lost any of their momentum and closed the first set on a 3-1 run to win 25-20.
Scatcherd was on fire early in the set, scoring four kills on the Cougars’ first seven points and ending the set with a team-high five kills and four receptions, trailing only Coulter’s 10 in that category.
Boyd opened the second set with an ear-ringing kill, spearheading a 6-3 run for the Cougars. However, two MRU attack errors and a MacEwan kill help the Griffins claw back into the set and tie it at six points apiece. The two teams exchanged points through the middle portion of the set, never letting the point differential exceed two points.
Herrod emerged as a huge setting threat to the Griffins as they began preparing early for attacks from her assists. The fourth-year Cougar soon noticed their trepidation and faked a set, turning it into a no-look floating kill past the Griffins’ unsuspecting front line to give MRU a 14-11 and force a MacEwan timeout.
The Griffins fought hard to cut their deficit and eventually took a 19-18 lead late in the set, but Herrod proved to be their kryptonite as she notched three picture-perfect assists to catalyze a 4-0 Cougars run and force a MacEwan timeout. The Griffins enacted a 3-0 run to tie the game at 22, but Davies-Neira and Megan Jones secured clutch kills to help the Cougars win the set 25-23.
Herrod dropped 14 dimes in the second set, helped by Davies-Neira’s seven kills and Boyd’s six, which she earned on a barely-believable 55.5 per cent efficiency.
MacEwan played with palpable desperation to open the third set, earning four kills and enacting a 5-2 run. MRU refused to let the game get out of hand, keeping the point differential to three points or less as the two sides traded kills and errors. Down 8-5, Boyd swung the momentum in favour of her Cougars with a powerful kill off of yet another perfect Herrod assist; three Griffin attack errors later, the Cougars seized a 9-8 lead.
MacEwan soon compensated for their mistakes as they scored four unanswered points and took a 13-11 lead. Coulter and Boyd secured a kill each to tie the game; Boyd then served up an ace to retake the lead by a 14-13 margin. The Cougars maintained their advantage even as the Griffins attempted to score their way back into the set, thanks to an ace from Herrod and a kill from Mya Morgan, and forced a MacEwan timeout with the scoreline at 18-15 in MRU’s favour.
Coming out of the timeout, the Griffins only found two points, with both of them coming from MRU errors. Meanwhile, the Cougars scored four points, three of which came from kills by Morgan, Davies-Neira and Boyd, giving them a 22-17 lead and forcing the Griffins to use their final timeout of the set.
MacEwan clawed back into the set with two towering blocks, but conceded a kill from Jones, allowing MRU to maintain a 23-19 lead. The Griffins scored two more points before Coulter and Davies-Neira scored a pair of clutch kills to give MRU a 25-21 third-set victory and 3-0 match win.
Morgan came alive in the final set of the match, dropping four kills and serving her only ace of the night in the final set.
Boyd earned Player of the Game honours for her overpowering offensive outburst, scoring 14 kills on an incredible 43.5 per cent efficiency rate to go along with her four aces.
The MRU Cougars women’s volleyball team will return to action against the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack on Friday, Feb. 7 at 8:15 p.m. in Kamloops, B.C. and live on Canada West TV.