Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Make no mistake. The MacEwan Griffins came close – a whole lot closer than the 3-1 score would indicate – to the biggest upset in the Canada West men's volleyball ranks this season on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.
Yes, USPORTS No. 1 seed and defending champion Trinity Western won in four sets (24-26, 25-16, 25-18, 26-24), but they needed to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the fourth to close it out.
Specifically, they pulled a veteran off the schneid. Eric Loeppky found his dominant form when he needed it most to lead the Spartans back from what seemed like a sure defeat in the fourth (down 14-8 at one point).
"He's just such a special player," said TWU head coach Ben Josephson of his second-year outside hitter who recorded a game-high 17 kills. "We needed him to be great. He had to use all of his tools and off-speed shots because they had a really good setup on all of his hard stuff.
"I thought he did a really good job of adapting to the night. In golf, they talk about 'play the day. Don't try to fix your shot on the course, fix it on the range.' Well, today, he didn't have his hard stuff – he had to use his off-speed – because that's what our opponent gave him. I was proud of him for adjusting and he got some really, really key kills down the stretch."
MacEwan will be looking at it as the upset that got away. Head coach Brad Poplawski's troops were in control of the fourth set and by all rights should have got the match to an anything-can-happen fifth.
"Just knowing how good that program is, it's disappointing," said Poplawski. "That was a good chance that we squandered. Going back to that big lead in the fourth set, you want to push it five and give yourself a chance.
"In a fifth set, anything can happen. It would have been nice to go five with the number one team in the country. Going four is a learning experience, but going five would have been an even bigger one. I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get that opportunity."
Fresh off a solid showing against No. 2 UBC last weekend, the Griffins came into the match with some jam, shocking TWU by taking the first set, sealed with Shane Kerrison's big block.
"We got blocked a lot in that first set," said Josephson. "Part of that was we missed a couple of things, combined with they had a really nice setup on a lot of our spikes.
"They've done a good job all semester of changing their lineups, playing different players, so we didn't really feel comfortable about anything that was going to come up tonight. I think they had the jump on us. They had a good plan and their players executed really well in that first set.
"I think it took us a while to figure out how to recover from that blow they landed early," he admitted. "We did that in the second and third and then I think they adjusted back and did some really good things to us in the fourth. I don't know how we got through that one."
Seems a key timeout called by Josephson with the Spartans trailing by six midway through the set was the difference.
"They called a timeout at 14-8 and I thought that timeout got a little bit too high," said Poplawski. "I thought we got a little too excited in that timeout. I think it kind of showed in our play because when you do that, you crash. You could see our body language when they started to make the comeback wasn't where it needed to be. It wasn't a refocus, it was a 'oh no.'
"We were looking back, not looking ahead. Against a team that good, as soon as they saw us start to struggle, they just put their foot down."
Thus, a 3-1 defeat – another moral victory, if you will – for the Griffins, who continue to push top teams but now sit at 1-10 in the standings.
"It's been kind of our Achilles a bit this year that we can at times play with the big boys, but then we give up runs," said Poplawski. "At the very end, it just came down to execution. We passed a perfect ball and then just weren't able to find some floor."
Ryan Zachary led the Griffins with 10 kills, two aces and four blocks, while Max Vriend chipped in eight kills and five blocks. Last season's kills leader Kai Hesthammer was switched to libero for this one and led the Griffins with seven digs.
Besides Loeppky, the Spartans were paced by setter Adam Schriemer's 39 assists, Jesse Elser's 14 kills and Pearson Eshenko's five kills and eight blocks. With the win, TWU is 10-1, tied for top spot in Canada West with UBC.
The Griffins and Spartans will meet in the rematch on Saturday (6:30 p.m., Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
