MacEwan Athletics

WINNIPEG – An inability to close out tight sets derailed the winless Griffins women's volleyball team again on Friday night.  

In control of the second set at the University of Manitoba nearly the entire way, the Griffins were stuff blocked at the net twice late as the Bisons rallied to steal it 26-24 and rode the momentum to a straight-sets 3-0 win (25-23, 26-24, 25-16) in Canada West action.

"It's the same old thing," said MacEwan head coach Ken Briggs. "We played the first two sets and we were fine. It was back and forth. The second set we found a way to do the same thing we've been doing the last little while.

"It's discouraging, but we're trying to find a way. I don't know what to do yet. I need to figure something out."

You can't blame him if he's searching for answers as it continues to be a head-scratching season for a veteran Griffins team that has hundreds of games of Canada West experience yet sits dead last at 0-7 in the standings.

On Friday, they had some success with McKenna Stevenson in the middle (five kills on a .273 hitting efficiency with four blocks) and some on the outside from Cassidy Kinsella (10 kills and 11 digs), but overall, the clutch points eluded them.

"It's just performance. It's just executing what we talked about," said Briggs. "Everybody seemed comfortable with what to expect. Now we just have to perform.

"We have a lot of individuals that are performing at different times, but we can't sustain … we can't stay in that nice medium ground. We're either really good or really bad. There's not just the steadiness in the middle.

"We're trying to find that right now. We're trying to find six people that are willing to do that."

Manitoba was led by Kearley Abbott, who had 16 kills, while Cassie Bujan had 17 digs, setter Brittany Habing had 39 assists and Emily Erickson chipped in five kills and five blocks.

The teams will meet again on Saturday (5:45 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).