Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
WINNIPEG – The inconsistencies that have plagued the Griffins men’s volleyball team for much of the season reared their ugly head during a straight-sets defeat to the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday night.
No greater example of that exists than the stark contrast between Sets 1 and 2 when they went from a .545 hitting percentage to -.286 in a match that went 25-20, 25-11, 25-22 in favour of the home team.
“We had 15 kills in the first set, which is above our goal we aim for – one of our better sets of the year,” said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. “Then the next set we have two kills. It’s just almost impossible to do that. It’s frustrating.
“We need a baseline of consistency that we just don’t have and it’s unfortunate that this deep into the season we haven’t been able to find that.”
With the result, the Griffins fall to 1-17 on the season, while the Bisons improve to 9-11.
Mitchell Croft returned to the lineup for MacEwan after missing Friday’s contest with an illness and led the team with 12 kills and 13.5 points. Both Daylan Andison and Brendon Lord had five kills each.
Manitoba setter Sammy Ludwig had 36 assists, while the Bisons got 13 kills from Owen Weekes and 10 from Jordon Heppner, who cranked them out at a sizzling .692 percentage, and also added a match-high four of Manitoba’s 10 service aces.
“They’re a very good team,” said Poplawski. “They won the game from the baseline. They put a ton of pressure on us from serves. At times we handled it well and at other times we didn’t.”
The Griffins had their best set of the match in the third. They went attack-for-attack, led by Croft, who had six kills overall.
The Griffins led 17-13 following a Croft kill from behind the attacking line where he beat a triple block, but the Bisons pushed back.
Back-to-back Weekes aces gave Manitoba an 18 and then 19-17 lead, and Heppner hooked a kill over a double block to the line right after.
Serving sub Ethan Hildebrand then ended the match at the line, putting down Manitoba’s tenth ace with a tear drop smash. Over the two games, the Bisons amassed 21 aces.
“The third set, we’re up by three late in the set and we just give up a run of five or six,” said Poplawski. “It’s just disappointing. They’re a good team and we were full marks for having a three-point lead and then it just goes so quickly.
“I tip my hat to them. They’re a big, physical team, so we have to do things differently and be more consistent in our system and our approach and we just didn’t have that.”
The Griffins return home to close out the season next weekend by hosting the Calgary Dinos on Feb. 14-15.
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