Jason Hills, For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — In a classic battle of youth versus experience, MacEwan's inexperience showed as they dropped three straight sets to the Alberta Pandas (25-16, 25-7, 25-20) on Saturday afternoon at David Atkinson gymnasium.
Mariah Bereziuk led MacEwan with seven kills and four digs and Amelia Anderson recoded 10 assists in the loss, while Kory White led Alberta with 15 kills, and Julia Zonneveld chipped in with 10 kills and 10 digs for Alberta.
"It exposed all 14 of our players of what the Canada West (conference) is," said Griffins head coach Ken Briggs.
"That's how fast things go when an experienced group decides to put the ball where they want to. We just didn't put them in enough trouble."
MacEwan hung in there during the opening set, taking an early lead, but once Alberta's veteran group of White, Zonneveld, Erin Corbett and Vanessa Jarman took control, the Pandas were able to break away.
Alberta controlled the service game, capitalizing on MacEwan's mistakes in the service game.
MacEwan trailed 11-9 after a big kill from middle Dana Dunbar, but back-to-back aces from Corbett broke the set open and Alberta didn't allow MacEwan any chance of a comeback.
"They went on runs, and we got panicky," said Briggs.
"We're learning how to deal with that. You can't learn it in one weekend, but I feel like we're leaps and bounds better than we were a month ago when we started the exhibition season."
MacEwan looked in complete disarray in the second set, allowing the Pandas to dominate in every facet of the game.
Alberta went on a 6-0 run as well as a 7-0 run to close out the set.
But despite getting kicked around in the second set, MacEwan came back and battled hard in the third set.
The Pandas jumped out to a 4-0 lead after a Zonneveld ace, but MacEwan punched back as they clawed their way back into the set and they eventually tied it at 15-15, but one service error gave Alberta the small spark they need to once again take control, and close out the game on an 8-4 run.
Alberta is primed for another national championship run, and this was a monumental test to open the Griffins season — but Briggs wants to take this experience and learn from it moving forward as the season progresses.
"It was a tough start against a team like Alberta that doesn't make many errors. We had our moments, but I loved our fight in the third set. That was my biggest takeaway from this (weekend)," said Briggs.
"When nothing seems to go right, can you still battle and I thought we did that in the third set today."
"We need to build that belief that we can fight to the bitter end. We get within a point or two, and then we let it slip away. It's going to be a slow process, but we can build off of this weekend."
