CALGARY - The 2019-20 volleyball season started off Friday night for the Mount Royal Cougars as they hosted the MacEwan Griffins.

The first set saw a come back in the last ten points by the Cougars who had fallen behind early on. They ended the set with a 25-22 win.

The second set was also tight with teams trading points the entire way through. A number of serving errors ended up costing MRU the set as the Griffins finished on top in extra points 28-26.

Set three was a deadlock through the technical timeout until the Griffins took a lead and didn't look back. They would take it 25-21.

MacEwan jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the fourth but the Cougars were able to control the momentum coming back and going up 7-5 thanks to a great service run from Matt Saly. They would hold the lead until late in the set when the away team tied things up at 24. A clutch block by 5th year Trent Mounter would extend the game to 5 sets 28-26.

The fifth was back and forth until MacEwan's star Max Vriend took over. He led the team to a victory after earning his 20th kill of the evening. Luis Lange was a stand out for the Cougars with a team leading 16 kills and five blocks. 

The two teams have a rematch tomorrow on Kenyon Court at 5:00 PM MST. You can also watch live at canadawest.tv presented by Co-op.