Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
SASKATOON, Sask. – Volleyball to the extremes was seen on an entertaining Saturday at the University of Saskatchewan.
Arden Butler had nine kills in the opening set for the Griffins.
If the record was tracked, it's got to be close.
But then teammate Alyshia Bryks had 10 in the fourth set.
What is happening?
Oh, and that fourth set … it finished at 36-34, one of the longest you'll ever see in a volleyball match.
MacEwan lost 3-1 to Saskatchewan (25-27, 25-16, 25-18, 36-34) and fell to 0-12 on the season, while the Huskies are now 7-7.
Butler led the Griffins with 16 kills and accounted for 16.5 points, while Bryks had 13 kills and 15.5 points. Payton Shimoda recorded 41 assists.
W��| UPDATE
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) January 18, 2025
Arden Butler finishes with NINE(!) kills in the opening set, including putting away the winner for a 27-25 @GriffinsWVB victory. They lead 1-0 over @HuskieWVB.#GriffNation @CanadaWest https://t.co/wjf4NVNqMA
"Payton did a really good job at finding both of them at appropriate times and set them in a good window," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler of Butler and Bryks' epic sets.
"We were relying on Arden heavy in that first set. She was all over the court spraying the ball around and I don't think Saskatchewan really knew how to handle her. She got lots of opportunity and the ball fell for her.
"In the fourth set, there were a lot of balls hit off the block on Alyshia's part, so she was using the hands really well. It was nice to see."
In the opening set, MacEwan was trailing 23-19, but went on a 5-0 run after a timeout and ended it on their third set point attempt as Butler put it away.
Saskatchewan was in the driver's seat in Sets 2 and 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the match and seemed to be on their way to closing out the fourth easily, up 15-10. But the Griffins wouldn't go quietly, engineering another 5-0 run to tie it, and the teams traded points forever.
MacEwan had seven set points from which to win it (on 25-24, 26-25, 28-27, 29-28, 32-31, 33-32 and 34-33 leads), but just couldn't put it away. Saskatchewan finally succeeded on their sixth set point.
"Both sides were swinging hard, swinging aggressive," said Wandler. "There was no tentative volleyball there. At any point in time, we thought we could have pulled that out.
"The effort on our side of the net – the defence – was just contagious. It was going crazy. We had good touches."
Arden Butler had nine of her team-leading 16 kills in the opening set on Saturday (Brynn Jarvis photo).
The match was the closest the Griffins have come to winning since taking Trinity Western to five sets in a 3-2 defeat on Oct. 19.
"This has been a long time coming to have one of these weekends," said Wandler. "And Friday could have been like that, too. But we stuck with it a little bit longer (today). The girls were determined we were going to come out of Saskatchewan with a W. It didn't unfortunately end up that way, but it feels like something we can grasp to and take into the next week."
The Griffins are back at home next weekend with matches against Regina on Friday (5 p.m.) and Saturday (3 p.m.).
