Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — For two of the three sets, the MacEwan Griffins showed they can go toe-to-toe with the Calgary Dinos, but they’ve got to find a way to finish stronger.
The Griffins fell in straight sets (27-25, 25-13, 25-21) to the Dinos on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Mitchell Croft led MacEwan with 11 kills and five digs, while Brendon Lord chipped in with seven kills and seven digs in the loss for the Griffins.
Tyler Funk and Erik Godwin led Calgary with eight kills each, while Louis Kuntsman was a force in the middle with five kills and five blocks.
“It’s not ideal the way we started, but we clawed our way back, but in the second, as a collective we made too many errors in my opinion,” said Griffins setter Ken Ang, who led MacEwan with 26 assists.
“In the third set, it was back and forth, we just allowed them to go on a few too many runs.”
MacEwan fell behind big early, as Calgary jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the opening set, but the Griffins rallied and after Lord had back-to-back kills, the Dinos’ lead was trimmed to 9-7.
The Griffins did a good job of not allowing the Dinos to go on any big scoring runs in the opening set, and stayed within striking distance.
They finally tied the set at 21-21, and would take a 22-21 lead. Calgary had a chance to win the opening set, but a big block from Seth Birkholz tied the set at 24-24. Still, the Dinos found a way to pull out the tight opening set.
“The boys did a good job of battling back after being down 7-1. It’s never an easy thing to come back, but the boys did a really good job to get back in the set and make a game of it, but we just couldn’t pull it out,” said Lord.
MacEwan wasn’t able to generate any momentum from their solid opening set as Calgary took a 4-3 lead early in Set 2, and didn’t look back.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our offence going in the second set, and we just let our energy drop and that leaked a lot into the third set,” said Lord.
MacEwan looked much better in the third set, holding an early 6-5 lead off the strength of a kill from Jarod Inia, and some solid defending at the net from Croft.
But after another kill from Inia cut the Dinos lead to 15-13, Calgary was able to go on a small 4-0 run and that gave them enough cushion to eventually earn the set win and match.
“We competed with them, we just have to lock in for those last few points when we’re in the 20s to make sure we when they get a point off a long rally, we can’t get discouraged,” said Ang.
MacEwan had 12 kills in the opening set, and 11 in the third set, but they had a tough time getting through the big block of Kuntsman, as the Dinos middle stands 6-foot-9.
But Lord said when you’re facing a big blocking presence like Kuntsman, you have to stay aggressive.
“We need to stay aggressive, and they have us outsized in virtually every position, so we just try our best to stay aggressive and not focus on their height,” said Lord.
Ang said they can’t be tentative when they face teams that have big middle blockers like the Dinos.
“I have faith in all my hitters. If they get blocked, I’ll feed them another and let them try again,” said Ang.
“At that point, you can control what you can do on your side by serving, digging balls and making good passes, but you can’t control what the other team does, and if they make a good play, you have to give them props, but let’s make a big play ourselves.”
Both Ang and Lord feel the team needs to come out with more energy in their final regular season game on Saturday against Calgary.
“We have to bring energy,” said Lord.
“One thing that we really showed is despite losing 3-0, I think we really competed well in the first and third set. We need to take a step back and get away from a scared mentality playing against a team that is locked into playoffs.”
The Griffins will also have some extra motivation on Saturday as three of their players are playing their final game with MacEwan.
“The boys have to be hungry. For some of the guys, this will be their last game of their career,” said Ang.
“We want to win that game and take another step and build for next year.”
MacEwan will wrap up their season on Saturday against Calgary (5 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).