Arden Butler hits off hands for one of her eight kills (Husain Dhooma photo).
Arden Butler hits off hands for one of her eight kills (Husain Dhooma photo).
January 31, 2026

'Beautiful finish' as four graduating seniors lead Griffins to weekend sweep of Brandon

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Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – This was the result the Griffins women's volleyball team knew they needed to have – back-to-back wins over the Brandon Bobcats – if they were to have a chance of making the Canada West playoffs.

When they beat Brandon 3-0 on Senior Day to complete the weekend sweep – with sterling performances from all four of the team's graduating seniors on Saturday – you couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces.

MacEwan won 25-17, 25-18, 25-21 in the final regular season home game for Payton Shimoda, Kara Frith, Arden Butler and Alyshia Bryks, who were celebrated in a post-game ceremony.

"I'm just feeling very grateful for the girls, for my family, for the staff," said Shimoda, who led the efforts with 36 assists in just three sets. "It was just a really good way to end our career here at MacEwan. It was a beautiful finish."

It could be more than a finish. 

With the result, the Griffins improved to 7-11 on the season and moved into eighth in the conference, ahead of idle Calgary (6-10). They will need to finish in the top-10 to make the playoffs and have two games left in the regular season – Feb. 13-14 at Alberta.

"I'm not too sure what this all means, but it gives us a chance to play some more volleyball after the finish of that last regular season match," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "We'll see what that looks like after today and I'll worry about that tonight."

He got some good news later in the night when UBC Okanagan lost 3-1 to Mount Royal and fell to 5-13, but Winnipeg pulled off a stunning 3-2 upset over nationally-ranked Manitoba to get to 6-12 with two remaining winnable games against Brandon.

All the Griffins can do, though, is take care of their own business. On Saturday, they did just that, attacking at a sizzling .330 efficiency in the match and dusting a Brandon team that brought strong defence to the table but were undone by service errors and untimely attacking mistakes.

"They played a little better tonight," said Wandler. "They hit some hands off our block and were very good in that way. 

"But I think (Kaitlin) Rolph did a good job of controlling the serve receive and was good in out-of-system. I just think all in all, we played just like we've been training. The team that we pictured ourselves as, this is what the result is."

Front and centre were the four graduating seniors. Shimoda set a varied attack that was led by Bryks, who had 15 kills on a .344 percentage, three aces and a block for a match-high 18.5 points. Frith added nine kills on a .350 and 13 digs, while Butler had eight kills on a .235.

"Arden, Alyshia, Kara and I wanted it so bad," said Shimoda, who now has 2,721 career assists, 19th in Canada West history with No. 18 (2,746 – Rylie Dickson of Winnipeg) and No. 17 (2,756 – Carla Bradstock of UBC) very much within her sights before the regular season concludes. 

"Our message at the beginning of the game was to play for each other and you could tell everyone was motivated and focused. Everyone really brought their A game because we wanted it so bad."

Brandon was led by Madelyn Hettinga, who had 10 kills, while Carly Thomson recorded 26 assists.

Frith had her fingerprints all over the end of the first set as her service ace got the Griffins to 24-17 before another tough serve forced the Bobcats into a miscommunication that dropped on their side of the court.

Serving sub Ella Graves held court for four-straight serves at the end of the second set as the Griffins closed on a 5-0 run, winning it when Brandon's attack went into the net.

The Bobcats were arguably just as good as the Griffins in Set 3, but had trouble from the service line with six of their 11 errors in the match. The set was tied 19-19, but again the clutch points went MacEwan's way, getting a nice power tip down the line from Frith to go up 23-20 and ending it on another Bobcats' attacking error.

"I'm incredibly proud of our effort," said Shimoda. "We know we needed to put in the work and get it done and we did just that. Now we're just hopeful and excited about what could potentially be for the playoffs."

The Griffins next head into a bye week before returning for their final action of the regular season Feb. 13-14 at Alberta.

Griffins' graduating seniors Alyshia Bryks, left, Arden Butler, Kara Frith and Payton Shimoda pose with their families after Senior Day post-game celebrations on Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).