HAMILTON, Ont. – Despite a late pushback, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball squad’s season reached its bitter end this evening, falling 3-1 to the first-seeded McMaster Marauders.
A disastrous start greeted the Bold in their opening round matchup with the Marauders as the nationally ranked side effectively picked apart the Bold on both ends of the ball.
McMaster’s all-business approach would be lived through the thrashing hands of its three-headed monster upfront, with Brendan Mills, Mateusz Wlodarski and Sam Cooper combining for ten kills in the opening frame.
The heavy swingers dressed in blue and gold would be held in check through much of the opening set, with leading scorers in Jacob Walker and Alex King held to just three kills as the Bold struggled to get their offensive act together off the hop.
That tide would soon change as the group began to settle into the match. The visitors opened up the middle stanza grabbing four of the opening five points with each and every one of TMU’s big hitters getting in on the action.
Both sides continued to trade points as the set inched forward, with the Bold and Marauders unable to put a steak in the ground and employ some momentum. Trading punches continued to overhaul the middle set, especially in its late stages. The Bold would force the set to extra points and capitalize from the heavy swings of Walker and King to knot the match up at one apiece.
What drew out to be a resistant battle from the Bold failed to carry over into the third set however, as the Marauders rekindled their individual success from the opening frame and used it well to their advantage.
Once more, McMaster funneled much of their offense through the thunderous attack of Mills and Cooper, with the latter firing off a game-high five kills in the blowout win. Despite struggling to manufacture momentous runs in the preceding set, the Marauders found themselves on the better end of four and six point runs respectively to help close in on their second victorious set of the evening.
Yet with all the momentum back in favor of the Marauders, the group were once again met with the never-say-die attitude of the Bold in the match’s penultimate stanza. In a similar stance to their second set, the Bold continued to hang in with the hosts and made advancing much more difficult for McMaster.
Despite the pushback however, it would be the Marauders getting the last laugh this time around as Mills filled the Bold’s end with kills. His team-leading twentieth kill stood as the last nail in the Bold’s season, securing the Marauders third victory and a spot in the semifinals.
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