Jarod Inia hits against a double UFV block on Saturday. He finished with seven kills (James Maclennan photo).
Jarod Inia hits against a double UFV block on Saturday. He finished with seven kills (James Maclennan photo).
January 11, 2025

Griffins unable to get in rhythm against big-blocking Cascades in 3-0 loss

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Picking up where they left off a night earlier, the UFV Cascades never let the MacEwan Griffins into Saturday's rematch, cruising to a straight-sets win at the David Atkinson Gym.

The visiting Cascades finished with a tidy .411 hitting percentage as they rolled to 25-18, 25-19, 25-18 wins in a match that was over in just over an hour.

MacEwan just couldn't find a way to go on runs as they were stymied by a strong UFV net presence and limited by their own mediocre passing.

"There were some good individual performances, but it wasn't close to good enough," said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. "That's not the level we need to be at."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-12, while the Cascades improve to 4-8 on the Canada West season.

Jonas Van Huizen led the Cascades with 11 kills on .526 efficiency, while Nimo Benne had 10 kills and four blocks. Both big left sides accounted for a co-match high 13.0 points. Silas Van Huizen set a varied attack in recording 33 assists, while middle Ryan Hampe led the way at the net with five blocks to go along with six kills.

Mitchell Croft paced the Griffins with 11 kills and accounted for 11.0 points, while Jarod Inia chipped in seven kills and seven digs, and both Seth Birkholz and Daylan Andison finished with five kills apiece, the latter also adding two aces.

"Mitch and Bobby were good and Daylan Andison gutted it out today with a really bad back," said Poplawski. "I give him a lot of credit. He had a great game yesterday and maybe shouldn't even have played today. He said he'd give it a go. His passing was good. I respect that.

"Offensively, (Croft and Inia) led the way for us. Bobby's passing was really, really good tonight. Obviously he missed a lot of time in the first semester. He's still getting used to U SPORTS and playing at this level. Every weekend, he's gotten better since he has gotten back."

The Griffins did a good job early in the first set not allowing UFV to get away from them after the Cascades attempted to stretch an early lead. But eventually, the dam broke and UFV raced to a 20-14 advantage on Hampe's attack in the middle before ending it on their first set point opportunity as Tyson Ardell won a joust over Mason Natras at the net.

In Set 2, the Griffins hung around early again, especially due to a strong serving run from Spencer Loucks. But UFV was clicking later in the set and got to 20 first on Roan McCarthy's tip over the block to make it 20-16. A quick attack in the middle from Hampe ended the proceedings on UFV's second set point opportunity.

The Cascades' net front presence ramped up even further in the third set as they came up with several of their 10 blocks in the match, while offensively keeping the Griffins guessing, having many opportunities to hit against a single pair of hands.

"They did a good job when they were in system to spread it out and keep us guessing a little bit with who they were going to set," said Birkholz.

UFV ended the game on their third match point opportunity as Inia hit into a triple block.

Birkholz noted they've seen a big block before, but the one presented by Benne and Van Huizen was challenging, to say the least.

"I think we were seeing the block, but it's a big block to go against," he said. "They've got some big guys. Nimo Benne, No. 9, is a big guy and it's not something we've seen every day, but we've seen it before. It's just another learning opportunity playing a good player like that – a big guy."

The Griffins will hit the road next weekend to visit the Saskatchewan Huskies on Jan. 17-18. 

As always after a loss, they're looking to find some positives to build off of.

"You look at the end score and it's tough to take some positives after, and it still stings, but I think you can definitely look at it and look at how some guys came in," said Birkholz. "I think Spencer (Foxcroft) came in and did a good job and just balanced us out. 

"Even just from this weekend, (we can take) how we were able to battle in certain moments. I think today, especially, our high ball execution in the first bit was really well done and that's something we've been working hard on, so that's good to see."