Bold end No. 2 ranked Marauders’ undefeated season

TORONTO – Upset fever infected the Mattamy Athletic Centre on Friday night as the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball squad took a monumental straight-set victory over the undefeated McMaster Marauders to punch their postseason ticket in style. 

A full team effort carried TMU across the finish line against the OUA leaders, as Kai Higuchi and Alex King recorded eight kills respectively to complement the infectious game of Nicholas Hudson and Omari Young.

“We played to the best of our abilities and it showed on the scoreboard,” said Hudson following the match. “We didn’t care who they were, it was do or die,” he added. 

The Bold exploded out of the gate in their final regular season matchup with the Marauders. The group’s dream start would see the all-too familiar duo in Jacob Walker and King pummel the No. 2 nationally-ranked side with a long list of kills to help secure the opening-set win. 

In addition to an offensive performance fit for the trophy case, the home side was exceedingly effective in extinguishing the year-long flame of the Marauders’ volatile attack, holding the visitors to just a trio of kills and a negative hitting percentage. 

“To see us go up early like that was awesome. I felt like we really handled our own,” said interim head coach of the Bold Niko Rukavina.

The blowout win marked the Bold’s first triumphant set in nearly six years of action with the Hamilton side and set the table for a similar narrative throughout the middle stanza as well. 

TMU continued to tack points onto what eagerly shaped out to be a consecutive blowout win for the blue and gold. The Bold effectively thread the needle on a pivotal run midway through the middle frame, scoring six consecutive points to grow their lead from three to eight in a blink of an eye. 

Higuchi and Hudson took full advantage of the struggling line of defence in front of them, registering three and five kills respectively in the set to help the Bold take a convincing 2-0 lead. 

“To have those two other guys round out our offence really helps a lot,” said Rukavina, attributing the strong performance to his diverse set of players through two sets of play. 

“I just picked the right shots. Tonight was my night,” added Hudson. 

Closing out the match became a taller task than what the Bold came to expect throughout the preceding pair of sets, with McMaster continuing to fight throughout the entire length of the frame. 

In fitting fashion, late-set drama ensued and seamlessly energized the Bold attack. A pair of timely kills from King gave the Bold a late two-point lead and helped push the Marauders to the brink. 

With the crowd screaming the letters T-M-U in full unison, Hudson stepped up to the net and denied Peter Rugosi with a block to send both the players and fans into a frenzy. 

After starting off the regular season losers of six consecutive games, the Bold have spent the better portion of the last several months grinding out wins to get to the point they currently find themselves in. What seemed as a faint knock on the postseason door now stands as one the Bold wish to crash through as they search for a league title.