Griffins put Friday defeat behind them with dominant 3-0 drubbing of Wesmen in rematch

WINNIPEG, Man. – With the playoff race in full swing and the disappointing result of Friday's loss still stuck in their craw, the MacEwan Griffins women's volleyball team showed an impressive urgency level as they ran roughshod over the Winnipeg Wesmen on Saturday.

It was a quick, tidy and dominant 3-0 win for the Griffins (25-15, 27-25, 25-12) as they improved to 5-7 and maintained their ninth-place position in the Canada West standings.

"We had a very good response from our group," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler, whose team had to pick themselves up off the mat after devastatingly blowing a 2-0 lead Friday to lose in five sets.

"Led by our veteran group, they really inspired everybody to be accountable to ourselves tonight and play with some freedom and play at a high level," added Wandler. "We're obviously very veteran-laden in our starting lineup. It's all about them. They played exceptional tonight."

Both Kara Frith and Alyshia Bryks had 10 kills, while Anika Buys was a rock in the middle with eight kills on a .583 hitting percentage, adding seven blocks and accounting for 13.0 points.

"Anika had some big blocks and eight kills on 12 attempts," said Wandler.

Setter Payton Shimoda had 30 assists and veteran outside Arden Butler, who has been mainly coming off the bench this season, came up huge with six aces – just one shy of the program record. The Griffins hit a season high with 11 aces overall.

"Arden came in tonight and passed the ball really well tonight and chipped in with five kills," said Wandler. "She served the ball well with six aces. Alyshia wasn't feeling well tonight. She came down with a little bit of a cold, but she gutted it out. In typical Alyshia fashion, she ended up with 10 kills, a service ace and a block."

Despite their best intentions to start strong, the Griffins were forced to call a timeout after spotting Winnipeg a 10-5 lead in the opening set. 

It worked.

By 12-12 it was tied and MacEwan went on a 13-3 run after that to close out the set.

Winnipeg's last gasp in the match came in Set 2 when they held a 19-15 lead and seemed to be on their way to tying the contest. Instead, the Griffins rallied back to tie it 21-21, fought off a set point on a Frith kill and ended it when Brooke Duncalfe's smash went long.

After that, it was like breaking through a dam. The Griffins simply overran the Wesmen in Set 3, sprinting to the finish line without ever being challenged.

"We got down in the first set and crawled back into it and snuck ahead," said Wandler. "We played very good defence, and we transitioned the ball back to the net so Payton could set the attack. When you do that enough times, it sucks the will out of teams. 

"I thought that was very indicative of how it went. You do that enough times and it just kind of broke them. Arden got to service line in Set 3, served a few aces and it busted them. That was just about a consistent effort on our part."

The Griffins are back on the road next weekend when they visit UBC (9-3) Jan. 16-17.