Marauders fall to Gaels in Friday night matchup

KINGSTON, Ont. – The McMaster Marauders women’s volleyball team fell to the Queen’s Gaels 3-1 (13-25, 25-15, 24-26, 21-25) on Friday night in the first game of a weekend series with the Kingston squad.
 
The host Gaels came out swinging, hitting an impressive .364 with 11 kills on 22 total attacks in the first set, while holding the Marauders to a zero hitting percentage. After going up 9-7 early in the contest, Queen’s rolled off six straight points and never looked back, en route to a decisive 25-15 Set 1 victory.

After going down 2-0 in the second set, McMaster rebounded and found its offensive rhythm, totaling nine kills to tie things up at 1-1 after taking set two 25-15.

Despite two one-sided sets, Set 3 was a tight battle between the No. 5 Marauders and No. 8 nationally-ranked Gaels. With three ties and McMaster down by as much as four points, the maroon and grey scored six straight points to take a 23-21 lead. Queen’s responded and with the home crowd behind them, took Set 3 by a competitive 26-24 scoreline.

The Gaels road the momentum from their Set 3 win into the fourth and ultimately took the match, with a final set score of 25-21.

Queen’s recorded 52 kills while McMaster put up 35. Serving proved to be the difference with the Gaels scoring 10 aces to the Marauders’ three.

An outside hitter in her third year of eligibility, Emma McKinnon led the Marauders’ offence with a team-high 13 kills. McKinnon accounted for 14.5 of McMaster’s points, including one solo block and one block assist. Fellow outside hitter, Olivia Julien, finished the game with seven kills, one service ace and one solo block.

Lauryn Colpitts had 28 assists on the night and also the team with 12 digs. Liberos Hayley Brookes and Christina Stratford combined for an added 11.

The Gaels were led by outside hitter Hannah Duchesneau who recorded 17 kills and 10 digs. Amanda Siksna finished the game with five solo blocks while Shea Baker recorded 48 assists.

McMaster will look to even the weekend series against Queen’s tomorrow night in Kingston. First serve is set for 6pm and can be streamed on OUA.tv.