Fabian Breitenbach, shown in action against the Golden Bears on Friday, led the Griffins with 12 kills and had the moment of the night for MacEwan with a huge block to win Set 2 (Graeme Kelly photo).
Fabian Breitenbach, shown in action against the Golden Bears on Friday, led the Griffins with 12 kills and had the moment of the night for MacEwan with a huge block to win Set 2 (Graeme Kelly photo).
February 15, 2026

Character-defining finish for Griffins as they take a set off nationally-ranked Golden Bears

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – With playoffs out of reach in the final match of an injury-plagued season against a nationally-ranked team, it would have been easy for the Griffins men's volleyball team to just go through the motions on Saturday.

Instead, they delivered a character-defining performance, pushing the U SPORTS No. 7 Alberta Golden Bears by taking a set off of them before ultimately falling 3-1 (25-19, 26-28, 25-12, 25-19).

"Obviously this year didn't go anywhere near the way we planned it out with injuries and different things," said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. "To come out in the last game of the year and show a lot of pride in their performance and their jersey … as a coach, I was very proud of my group tonight."

The signature moment of the evening for the Griffins came in Set 2 when rookie German outside hitter Fabian Breitenbach had a solo block on Dylan Martens to seal a 28-26 win for MacEwan. Breitenbach led the Griffins with 12 kills, an ace, five digs and two blocks.

"It was just nice for the guys to earn a set victory like that," said Poplawski. "We've been working pretty hard with Fabian on his blocking and some of his movements and he was able to execute. 

"That was a great moment for the team. It was just fun to watch my guys compete tonight."

With the result, MacEwan finishes the season 0-20 but finishes above UFV (also 0-20) on the points tiebreaker. Alberta wraps up at 15-5 and will have the third seed in the Canada West playoffs.

The way the Griffins finished should send them into the off-season with a building block, especially since the young roster is all eligible to return in 2026-27.

"With a young team, we don't lose anyone and I'm pretty excited about the guys we're bringing in for next year," said Poplawski. "A lot of young guys we didn't see having such a big role this year, played a lot. Solomon (Flindall) got back in tonight and he was incredible as a first-year libero. I'm really hoping that experience getting on the floor really shows the guys what they need to work on and motivates them going forward."

The exorbitant number of man games lost will always be the story of the Griffins' season, derailing any chance they had of making a playoff push.

"It is tough to evaluate this season because we only got to play the lineup I was envisioning for 25 points," said Poplawski, who lost starting libero Austin Ly in Game 1 of the season before losing five other starters at various points. "It was a challenge that way, but I'm the one that brought that up. My guys never used it as an excuse. They looked it as an opportunity and they had a mature attitude towards it. 

"I hope we can keep the right guys in the program and keep growing. No one likes to struggle the way we did this year. We're all competitive individuals and we take pride in what we do. We want to earn respect in this league. We have a long way to go still, but we think we have some pieces in place that can help us through that."

Flindall finished the season with 320 receptions, which breaks the program record for the most by a rookie in a Canada West season (previously 318 by Jefferson Morrow in 2019-20).

"I talked to him after the game and said, 'it's so fun watching your progress this year, just how you've improved,' " noted Poplawski. "He really did a good job in five sets he played this weekend against an absolutely bomb serving team. 

"I told him I'm really excited to see where his career can go from here. He got so much experience this year and I really think he's just scratching the surface. He's so technically sound and he has really good volleyball IQ, so I'm really excited to see him continue to progress in our program."