While the Cougars hockey teams were dueling against the Dinos at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday, Jan. 31 for the Crowchild Classic, the MRU men’s volleyball team (4-10) hosted the MacEwan University Griffins (0-14) on Kenyon Court. Despite having to play in front of a smaller crowd, the Cougars defended their home court and won in three tightly contested sets (25-20, 25-20, 25-19)
Ryan John’s opening serve for MRU ended in an error, handing MacEwan the first point of the night. However, the Griffins returned the favour immediately, committing an attack error and keeping the score level at a one-point tie. Both sides continued to trade kills and errors until the 11-11 mark in the set. Cody Hudson broke the game open for the Cougars, launching a lethal shot into the heart of the Griffins’ defense. From that point on, MRU never relinquished their lead, eventually taking a 25-20 set win.
Paul Dionne opened up the scoring in the second set, unleashing an unstoppable strike off the hands of the Griffins’ defense to put the Cougars up 1-0. MRU scored two more points before MacEwan responded with their first point of the set, putting the score at 3-1. The Griffins would not go away as they refused to let the Cougars open up a set-breaking scoring run and their high-effort play paid dividends as they took a 17-16 lead, forcing Shawn Sky to call timeout. The Cougars came out of their discussion motivated, immediately scoring three consecutive points to retake the lead and force a Griffins timeout. From then on, MRU held onto their lead until the end of the set, taking a 25-20 win.
The third set got off to a raucous start as the two sides traded points until the 4-4 mark. Grant Hill set up an unblockable spike for John that deflected out of bounds off of the Griffins and gave MRU the lead. John followed that with a ruthless kill, putting the score at 6-4 in favour of the Cougars. MacEwan stayed hot on the Cougars’ tails, never letting the set get out of hand, and even tied the game at 12. However, following the precedent they had set in the previous two sets, the Cougars refused to let go of the lead as they played confident, error-free volleyball. With the score at 19-18 in favour of MRU, the Cougars closed out the set on a 6-1 run, winning it 25-19 and defending home court with a 3-0 match victory.
Maxim Turgeon earned Player of the Game honours, posting two offensive assists, one block assist and three kills on six attack attempts.
The MRU Cougars men’s volleyball team will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 1 against the MacEwan University Griffins at 7 p.m. on Kenyon Court and live on Canada West TV.