Jason Hills, For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins can take a lot of good lessons from their cross-town rivals, the University of Alberta Golden Bears this weekend.

In a battle of youth versus experience, the Griffins hung around at times with the perennial national championship contender, but were simply overmatched.

The Griffins struggled to contain the Bears high-powered serving attack and lost in three straight sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-16), Saturday afternoon at the David Atkinson gymnasium.

Fourth-year outside hitter Alexei Walisser led MacEwan with five kills in the loss, while the Bears duo of veterans Jordan Canham and Braedon Friesen led Alberta with 10 and seven kills, respectively.

"We were definitely better yesterday and more competitive," said Griffins head coach Bradley Poplawski.

"The U of A showed a lot of class and really showed the gap that is between us. Today, they raised their level, and we couldn't match it."

One area of strength the Griffins showed in the preseason was their serve-pass game, but Alberta was able to pick it apart, especially in Saturday's rematch as Canham and Friesen displayed immense power and finesse when attacking the Griffins.

MacEwan battled Alberta punch for punch in the opening set, but with Bears middle Grayden Wiebe on the service line, MacEwan struggled with his float serve and Alberta went on an 8-0 run to take command of the opening set.

"They have some guys that can really put a lot of velocity on their spin serves and we were right there with them in that first set and then it's a float serve that gets them on an 8-0 run. That's frustrating," said Poplawski.

"If Canham or Friesen go back and bomb one at 120 km, I get that, but we shouldn't be giving up runs of eight with a float serve."

That run seemed to shake the confidence that the Griffins had, and Alberta took advantage and were in full control over the next two sets, only giving up the lead once on the opening point of the third set.

"Today, we missed less (serves), but we didn't serve very hard, and you have to serve aggressively against a team like Alberta," said Poplawski.

"We couldn't get U of A out of their system and they were able to run four against three all day to their advantage. We have to find that line of not missing a lot of serves, but also put them into trouble. We made it too easy for them, and didn't push them enough."

Alberta led the entire second set, but MacEwan did show some fight as they closed a 15-10 gap to 16-15 after a big block from first-year outside hitter Isaac Heslinga, but the Golden Bears went on another run, capped off by back-to-back aces by Canham.

"We let that one run hurt us. We didn't let it go," said Poplawski.

"We need to find ways to reset quicker and find ways to not allow teams to go on those big runs."

Poplawski knew his young and inexperienced squad would be in tough against Alberta. Now, his goal is to learn from their mistakes in the opening weekend and build momentum as the season goes on.

They will face Alberta four more times in the regular season, and he wants to see his team push Alberta and make it tougher on their crosstown rivals.

"I have to challenge the guys," said Poplawski.

"The U of A has big goals this year, and we owe it to ourselves to be better, we owe it to them to be better, and we need to push them."