CALGARY - The MacEwan Griffins travelled to Mount Royal to take on the Cougars on opening night for the 2019-20 Canada West women's volleyball season. Both teams have veteran cores with many returning athletes looking for a win to start the season. 

The Griffins started the match with more energy and took the first two sets. They were led by McKenna Stevenson with 18 kills and only 3 errors on 37 attempts. This fifth year middle's step-arounds were tough to stop as she racked up an efficiency of 40.5%. 

The Cougars fought back and won in the third and fourth set to push the match to the fifth set. The comeback was ignited by third-year outside hitter Haley Roe who entered the game after the first set and changed the momentum. 

The fifth set went back and forth with each team taking the lead. The match was decided by a kill from fifth year outside hitter Chantel Park. With the second five set match of the night, the season opener finally came to a close at 11:30 PM MST.  

?These two teams will have a short rest time before a rematch on Kenyon Court tomorrow at 7:00 PM MST. This brings MRU to a 1-0 record as GMU falls to 0-1. The game can be watched tomorrow on canadawest.tv presented by Co-op.