Brendon Lord hits off the Brandon block on Friday. He finished with nine kills (Husain Dhooma photo).
Brendon Lord hits off the Brandon block on Friday. He finished with nine kills (Husain Dhooma photo).
January 31, 2026

Strong passing performance puts Griffins right there with Brandon, but closing points elude them

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Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins are learning just how close the margin of error can be.

Their 3-0 loss (25-17, 25-23, 25-21) to the Brandon Bobcats on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym will go down as a straight sets defeat, but it was a game that could've gone either way — they just need to find a way to close out those close sets.

"It went right down to the wire in those last two sets," said Griffins outside hitter Daylan Laszlo.

"It comes down to being confident in our abilities. We had some success, and we have to continue to do what got us there. Right now, we're having too many runs where we're high, and then we drop down to a really low, low."

Fabian Breitenbach led the Griffins with 13 kills, two aces and four digs, while Brendan Lord tallied nine kills and four digs in the loss.

Kenneth Ang recorded 33 assists, one kill and seven digs, as the Griffins fell to 0-16 this season.

Tom Friesen led Brandon with 17 kills and four digs and Ethan Baraniuk had 13 kills, four assists, three digs and a block in the victory for the Bobcats.

It was a tough opening set, as MacEwan started out of the gate slow, and didn't really find their footing until midway through the set. Brandon let the entire way.

In the second set, both teams took turns with the lead. MacEwan held a 9-6 lead after a big block from Keegan Hanrahan.

They kept the lead, but the Bobcats simply wouldn't go away and eventually took an 18-17 lead.

Two late kills from Breitenbach and one from Lord got the Griffins to within one point, but they couldn't close it out.

"They're a good team, but in the end, it came down to us making too many mistakes to allow them to go on some key runs when they needed it," said Breitenbach. 

"We can compete with them. We can beat them, but when we make a mistake, it can get in our heads a little too much.

"If we make one mistake, then we need to get it out of our head, that way it will be easier to move forward."

In the third set, the Griffins jumped out to a comfortable 5-1 lead on the strength of Laszlo, who came out firing with a big block, a kill down the pipe, and then he hammered in a nice ace to give MacEwan the early four-point lead.

"Kenny (Ang) did a great job spreading the offence. Even when the pass was a bit off, he did a good job finding the guys," said Laszlo.

"Our team did a great job passing today, and that's something we've struggled with all second semester, and I'm glad we got that going tonight.

"In the second and third sets, I adjusted and I felt the team could rely on me more, but I still had some struggles, and I needed to be more consistent."

Brandon was able to battle back and shrink the Griffins lead and eventually take a 12-11 lead.

A kill from Hanrahan would tie the set at 14-14, and while MacEwan kept within striking distance, they weren't able to get on a big enough run to get the set win. 

"Tonight, we were battling, but we're not used to competing in the high 20s against other teams, which is where we want to be, but today is a good way to learn from that," said Breitenbach.

"If we get more comfortable in sets where it's 20-20, or 22-22, and we can execute in those moments and go for the win, we won't shy away in those moments."

MacEwan will wrap up their weekend series with Brandon on Saturday (4:30 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).