Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Behind a scrappy defensive effort by star libero Caitlin Le, the Brandon Bobcats came within a whisper of their first victory of the season, pushing the MacEwan Griffins to the limit before falling in a fifth set in Canada West women's volleyball action on Saturday.
Le recorded 29 digs – matching the second-highest output in that category by any player in the conference this season – but the Griffins survived to celebrate a 3-2 victory (23-25, 25-11, 25-19, 20-25, 15-10).
With their fourth victory in a row, the Griffins improve to 6-4 in the Canada West standings. The Bobcats are still searching for their first win of the campaign, falling to 0-10.
"They played their hearts out," said Brandon head coach Lee Carter. "They wanted to show a little bit more of what they were made of, so they came out and they battled.
"In the end, it's a step in the right direction, but we still didn't make that hurdle."
MacEwan will take the victory and bank the points, but they got away with a sleepy start and several uncharacteristic errors that nearly derailed an expected sweep over a team they defeated in straight sets on Friday.
"We didn't bring very much energy," said head coach Ken Briggs. "My only comment tonight is a win's a win and that's a good thing. At least we didn't throw that away because we learned last year every set counts."
The weekend sweep allowed the Griffins to enjoy a measure of revenge on the Bobcats, who were the team that knocked them out of the post-season last February when MacEwan's loss to them put them on the wrong end of a three-way sets won/lost tiebreaker for the final two playoff positions.
Just as in their victory on Friday, Kylie Schubert set a balanced attack for MacEwan with 41 assists as four players finished with nine kills (Hailey Cornelis, Haley Gilfillan, McKenna Stevenson and Carly Weber), while Lauren Holmes had eight. Gilfillan had a strong night at the service line with six aces, adding five blocks.
Besides Le's big defensive performance, Brandon was led by Danielle Larocque in the middle with a match-high 11 kills, while Ravyn Wiebe chipped in 10 kills and setter Jamie Bain had 32 assists.
The Bobcats took advantage of a lethargic-looking Griffins squad in the opening set, wrapping it up when Weber's attack went long.
"We sucked the wind out of the building," said Briggs. "They played a lot scrappier and you can't get into a scrap battle. When we did the right things, you just can't stop that offence."
Like in the second set when the Griffins were back to scoring at will, getting out to a 5-0 start behind Gilfillan's serves, and leading 20-9 on the trot before Schubert's service ace ended it.
The Griffins used a 12-2 run in the middle of Set 3 to take control of that one and Gilfillan's quick attack got the job done on their fourth set point attempt.
The Bobcats were a different team in Set 4, though, going toe-to-toe with MacEwan throughout and taking advantage of some uncharacteristic Griffins errors late to tie the match on Larocque's smash.
But MacEwan pulled the match out of the fire in the fifth set, waking up to take a commanding 12-4 lead. Brandon almost pulled off an impossible comeback with a 6-0 run to 12-10 before Weber's kill pushed MacEwan to the finish line.
"Just one rotation," said Carter of the difference. "We got stuck and they went on a six-point run. We did the same back to them, but the hole was dug so deep that by the time we got close there just wasn't enough time left."
So, the Griffins will take the victory and be confident that there's no picture on the scorecard. But they need to learn from it.
"We weren't engaged enough," said Briggs. "At this level, we need to be more engaged and I thought we put in just a good enough effort. But we did what we needed to do, and I've got to grab on that."
MacEwan will next host Manitoba for a pair of matches Nov. 29-30, while Brandon returns home to host UBC-Okanagan on the same nights.
