MacEwan Athletics
VANCOUVER – Earlier in the week, the MacEwan Griffins men's volleyball team talked about what a great opportunity it would be to test themselves against one of the best teams in the nation.
They were left searching for answers after the No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds got out a steamroller and flattened them 3-0 at War Memorial Gym on Friday afternoon (25-19, 25-15, 25-14).
"It's probably the only match we've had this year where I couldn't point to one guy or one thing that we did well," said Griffins head coach Brad Poplawski. "It was kind of a full team effort. UBC forced us into that. It wasn't that we didn't play. They did some things to really stress us.
"We weren't able to make the appropriate response or proper read or just execute. The numbers tell a good tale. It was well deserved."
The team stats indeed paint a pretty ugly picture for the Griffins. They had more than double the attack errors than UBC did (17-8), posted a miniscule team hitting percentage of .045 (compared to .462 for the T-Birds), had eight serve reception errors (compared to one for their opponents) and managed just 3.0 blocks in the match.
Individually, Max Vriend was the only Griffins player with any sort of volume efficiency, recording four kills on .250 per cent. Shane Kerrison did lead the squad with eight kills, but he fired at just .043 per cent. Kornel Kowalewski was the only other attacker in positive numbers with one kill on two attempts, adding a co-team high two blocks (with Kerrison).
"We have to learn from this one," said MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. "UBC's the No. 2 team in the country and we have the No. 1 team (Trinity Western) next week, so if we don't learn from it these next three games are going to be ugly. We have to learn to do the things we need to do to give ourselves a chance.
"You have a have a bit of a team identity," he added. "We can't play the same way these guys do, we're a different team. How can we play a system that works for us and execute the way we need to?"
UBC boasts an assortment of riches in attacking positions. Not only do they have all-star Irvan Brar, who led the team with eight kills on Friday, but Mat Guidi and Keith West (seven kills each) also finished off a varied attack set up by all-star Byron Keturakis (32 assists).
If you need a reason why MacEwan only recorded three blocks, there it is.
"They're tough in that they run a pretty varied offence," said Poplawski. "They really do a good job of spreading it around and they have four arms that can beat you on the court. It does make it harder.
"You have to be more disciplined. The middles have to do a really good job closing and reading, and your service pressure needs to be there to take them out of system a little bit and give your block a chance," he added. "We didn't serve anywhere near well enough to give ourselves any opportunity. If they're passing to four guys all day, they're tough to stop because they just have so many weapons."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (7:30 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
