Strong start, clutch finish leads to Griffins' first victory of the season, 3-1 over Calgary
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
25 | 25 | 23 | 25 | 3 |
|
|
17 | 15 | 25 | 23 | 1 |
Team Stats
| Game Statistics | MacEwan University | Calgary |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting % | .210 | .054 |
| Blocks | 8.0 | 9.0 |
| Digs | 47 | 43 |
| Aces | 8 | 7 |
Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – After two comfortable set wins to send the Calgary Dinos to the brink, the Griffins needed to dig deep to secure their first win of the season – 3-1 – on Saturday.
It came through tenacity late in Set 4 when they refused to let the Dinos tie the match, recovering from 22-20 down to win 25-23 and end the night.
They won 25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 25-23 to improve to 1-1 on the young season.
"I loved the rebound that we had in the fourth set," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "We got a bit of a lead, it went back and forth, Calgary played a little bit better. At the end we got some big blocks and some points from Kara (Frith), Alyshia (Bryks) and Arden (Butler) when it mattered, and we came out with the victory."
Because the Griffins picked up a loser's point by taking the Dinos to five sets on Friday, they garnered four points out of the weekend to the Dinos' two. Points, however, are only in play for tiebreakers between teams with the same record.
Frith led the Griffins with 14 kills on 42 attack attempts, adding three aces and 11 digs. Butler had 12 kills on a .417 hitting percentage, also scoring three aces. Payton Shimoda finished with 37 assists.
"We were in control of ourselves," said Wandler of the hot start. "That's the biggest thing we've been trying to get across to the athletes. No matter what happens on the other side of the net, you control your thoughts, your feelings and your execution. They did a marvelous job of doing that two nights in a row."
SET 1 win!
— GriffinsWVB (@GriffinsWVB) October 18, 2025
Kara Frith finishes off a dominant opening set for the @MacEwanGriffins with an ace!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/TQ2evdNDO3
Seemingly on their way to a Saturday sweep, the wheels came off for the Griffins late in Set 3. Up 21-15, they conceded a 10-2 run to the Dinos and lost 25-23.
"I think we just looked a little bit too far ahead," said Wandler. "It's kind of that combination of 'I can play a little bit relaxed and not let the mistake bother me.' You let too many of those slip away and the other side gets a little momentum, and it just slipped out of our fingers a little bit."
But the key was they righted the ship quickly, getting out to an early in Set 4 before it turned into a neck-and-neck affair. Calgary led 22-20 before the Griffins earned the clutch points, some off of long rallies, and closed it out 25-23 on a Dinos attacking error.
VICTORY!
— GriffinsWVB (@GriffinsWVB) October 19, 2025
Tons of long rallies like this one were featured in a tightly-contested fourth set, but the @MacEwanGriffins prevail 25-23 and take the match 3-1 over the @UCDinos for their first win of the 2025-26 @CanadaWest season!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/hwmpkXy7J5
"Just look at the core of the roster," said Wandler on how they were able to close it out. "They're all fifth years. That's the result of playing – playing in tight matches and learning how to deal with that. Kudos to them. They just found a calmness about their game and went about executing it."
Wandler singled out Butler as making a big improvement from Night 1 in Calgary and coming up big to lead the Griffins to a win.
"Arden had a massive match today," he said. "She was just confident in everything she did today. Today, she just found her groove. Payton fed her in the right window and Arden was just capitalizing on it."
MacEwan will now return to Edmonton for their first home matches of the new season Oct. 24-25 vs. Thompson Rivers. The Calgary weekend has given them a stroke of confidence.
"It's a big motivator and positivity on how much intentional effort we put in daily to do things like we did today," said Wandler. "I'm very proud of the team's effort."
