Alexei Walisser, seen in action against Winnipeg earlier this season, led the Griffins with six kills against Alberta on Saturday (Robert Antoniuk photo).
Alexei Walisser, seen in action against Winnipeg earlier this season, led the Griffins with six kills against Alberta on Saturday (Robert Antoniuk photo).
January 22, 2023

Serve-pass battle goes against Griffins in straight sets loss to U SPORTS No. 1 Alberta

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – The Griffins were well aware what they were up against on Saturday after they took a set off the U SPORTS No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears a night earlier.

It was like poking a bear.

The result was a 3-0 victory for Alberta (25-10, 25-19, 25-19) in Canada West men's volleyball action.

"A team as strong as U of A with where they want to go this season, they don't just want to win, they want to win the right way and I'm sure their talk yesterday was about losing that set to us," said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. "So, I think we all knew they were going to be better today. I think they just asserted their will on us. 

"As I said yesterday, they're a big, physical team and they just applied a lot of pressure from the service line again. Their block did some good things for them. That was kind of the story of the game."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 1-16, while the Golden Bears improve to 16-1.

MacEwan's attempt at service pressure ultimately didn't work as well in Saturday's rematch as it did on Friday, when they lost 3-1, but finished off one of the sets with back-to-back aces. 

"We tried to serve a little more tactical in different seams and we missed 17 serves with no aces and I think they were 20 misses and seven aces," said Poplawski. "At this level, a lot of times whoever wins the serve-pass battle comes out on top and they definitely won that tonight."

Jordan Canham led Alberta with eight kills on a .462 hitting percentage, adding four service aces, six digs and six blocks.

Alexei Walisser led the Griffins with six kills. Rookie Seth Birkholz added two blocks and a kill.

"Seth did some good things," said Poplawski. "He had a couple good blocks on one of their big guys. We had a couple guys unable to play right before game time due to some injuries, so we did get a few other guys in today. Nicholas Jabusch played a little bit in Sask but hasn't played a lot. So, for him to get out there against a team like U of A was a good experience for him. He's been working hard in training, so hopefully for his development that helps him."

The Griffins head into a bye weekend before hosting Thompson Rivers Feb. 3-4.