Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
-With files from UBCO Athletics
KELOWNA, B.C. – The excitement over Max Vriend's record-breaking 32-kill performance on Friday night was dulled by the fact the MacEwan Griffins suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat to the UBC-Okanagan Heat in Canada West men's volleyball action.
Vriend broke his own program record of 30 set on Nov. 29 of this season in a four-set match against Manitoba with one of the best single-match performances ever seen in Canada West.
His 32-kill performance has only been topped by four players in the history of the conference, none of them this season.
As a result, Vriend now leads all Canada West players with 258 kills and is also tops with 4.03 kills per set.
"He's legit," said MacEwan head coach Brad Poplawski. "He's awesome. He's become a great player in our program.
"It's probably something I'm sure I'll reflect on later, but we lost again."
That's the disappointing part of the evening as the Griffins lost 27-25, 21-25, 20-25, 25-22, 15-12 and the Heat snapped their program's 17-game losing streak that had stretched back to last February. They're now 1-16 to MacEwan's 2-17 mark.
"We weren't ready to play to start the match, so that's on me as a coach," said Poplawski. "We were very tentative. We can't ease our way into matches like we do."
That said, the Griffins took control of the match by winning the second and third set and seemed to be in the driver's seat to their third win of the season … until they weren't.
"Old habits or bad errors and we find a way to lose," said Poplawski.
Besides his kills count, on 65 swings for a solid .308 attacking percentage, Vriend added 13 digs and four blocks, accounting for 34.0 points to tie a program record he set against Winnipeg last season.
Setter Jonathan Mohler matched a career high with 54 assists – tying the third-best mark in program history – while Jordan Krause added 11 kills and three service aces.
The Griffins and Heat will meet again on Saturday (7 p.m. MT, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
