EDMONTON — MacEwan lost in straight sets (25-21-25-18, 25-12)  to the Alberta Pandas on Friday night at the David Atkinson gym, but they didn't make it easy on their cross-town rivals.

Alyshia Bryks led MacEwan with five kills and five digs, while Andi Krawec and Arden Butler had four each for the Griffins. Krawec also led MacEwan with 11 digs in the loss. Payton Shimoda recorded 16 assists for MacEwan.

Abby Guezen led Alberta with 11 kills and five digs, while Laila Johnson chipped in with eight in the Pandas victory.

MacEwan has been hit hard by the injury bug to start the year, and it's forced Wandler to juggle his lineup and put certain players in elevated roles.

In the opening set against Alberta, MacEwan traded points back and forth to make it 6-6, before the Pandas went on a 6-0 run, but there was a point in that run that sparked MacEwan.

An incredibly long rally that featured several big digs, players flying out of bounds to keep the ball in play, was finally ended on a nice tip from Pandas middle Ronnie Dickson, but MacEwan was able to gain momentum.

Down 20-15, two aces by Krawec and a nice tip from Shimoda closed the gap to 20-18, and MacEwan was right with the Pandas.

In the second set, MacEwan came out strong, and a nice block from Evangeline Zeyha extended the Griffins lead to 8-5, and they were in control for a good portion of the second set.

Alberta eventually took the lead 13-12, and went on a 8-1 run to lead 20-13, but the Griffins didn't go away, they continued to push back, but after a nice kill from Anika Buys cut the lead to 22-18, the Pandas were able to close it out.

The Pandas are a veteran-savvy team that boasts loads of experience, and in the third set, they took an early 4-3 lead, and then went on 15-6 run to blow it wide open, but after battling so hard in the first two sets, the Griffins didn't have much left.

MacEwan and Alberta will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at the David Atkinson Gym at 3 p.m. MT (Canada West TV).