Lancers fall to Marauders in home opener doubleheader

The Windsor Lancer women’s volleyball team held their home opening matches this past weekend at the Toldo Lancer Centre in Windsor.  The Lancers welcomed the McMaster Marauders for the Friday and Saturday evening matches which saw McMaster come away with a pair of sweeping road victories in the Rose City. 
 
McMaster handed Windsor a 3-0 loss (16-25, 23-25, 18-25) on Friday and followed up with another 3-0 loss (25-27, 21-25, 20-25) on Saturday to keep the Marauders undefeated on the campaign at 5-0 while the Lancer ladies are still looking for their first win of the season. 
 
FRIDAY STATS
Aliah Admans led the Lancers offensively on Friday with 10 kills in the loss while Raiya Millin chipped into the blue and gold’s offense with 6 kills of her own in the first home loss of the season.

Yaila Sealy led the way defensively for the Lancers with 8 digs but also remained productive offensively with 4 kills and a service ace in the Friday night match up.
 
Nicole Woelk produced 24 assists for the Lancer attackers to score kills off of which unfortunately was not enough in securing a home court victory for the first outing on the weekend doubleheader at home.
 
McMaster was led by Sullie Sundara who had a game high of 14 kills and 6 service aces which gave the Lancer serve receive trouble throughout the contest in helping lock up a Marauder win in the first matinee on Friday. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
In the opening set, the Lancers found themselves trading points with the Marauders in the early going of the first set.  That was until Sundara brought the heat from the McMaster service line going on a strong spin serving streak which saw three aces in a row land uncontested on the Lancers side of the court which triggered an early timeout called by Windsor in an effort to slow Sundara and the Marauders down.
 
McMaster would go on to comfortably keep Windsor at a distance in the first set by building on their lead which grew as high as a ten-point spread to coast to an eventual first set win over the Lancers with a victorious score of 25-16 to go up 1-0 in the match.
 
The Lancers would get the first point of the second set, just like the first, but found themselves again in a tug-a-war with McMaster early on in the second.  With the lead swapped back and forth on multiple occasions, along with the momentum swings that came with the points, the Marauders began going on a run towards the midway mark opening up a larger lead on the Lancers which lasted for a five-point stretch.  The blue and gold would try to shrink the burgundy and silver’s lead persistently throughout the second which did eventually pay off when on set point for the Marauders the Lancers began to trim the lead down to a one-point deficit at 24-23. 
 
Despite the Lancers battling back to overcome a deficit as high as seven points in the late portion of set number two, the Marauders were able to cap off the second set with a 25-23 second set win and go up 2-0 in the match on the verge of going for a sweep.
 
The third set saw the Lancers remain competitive exchanging points throughout the early stages of the third trying to stave off a sweeping result against them. 
 
Windsor even held a 7-4 lead early on off a series of attack errors generated by the visiting Marauders, but McMaster was able to overcome those woes after tying up the set at 8-8 and keep the game within their sights eyeing a three-set win over the Lancers. 
 
After the Marauders got their ninth point of the set to break the tie, they did not look back and continued to cruise on the Lancers court eventually cruising to a 25-18 third set win and completing a 3-0 sweep earning their fourth win of the season with their first match of the weekend in Windsor and handing the Lancers their third loss on the year.
 
SATURDAY STATS
Raiya Millin led the Lancers offense on Saturday with 6 kills while right behind Millin, Dylan Moyer had 5 kills and Maja Susa had 4 of her own.
 
Nicole Woelk had 17 assists, 11 digs and 2 service aces for a well-rounded individual performance despite the team’s second loss on the weekend to the Marauders.
 
McMaster’s outside hitter Sullie Sundara again led the charge with 12 kills in the win along with her Marauder teammate Ellie Hatashita who had 10 kills of her own. 
 
Defensively, McMaster libero Christina Stratford made it incredibly tough for the Lancers to generate kills with her notable whopping 20 digs and outstanding defensive performance in Windsor that helped backstop her team to maintaining a flawless season record to date.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
The first set on Saturday started with a resemblance to Friday’s opening set with both teams trading points early before the Lancers were able to go up by a three-point lead which allowed them to hold some premature control in the opening set. 
 
The Marauders began to claw back towards the midway mark of the first closing in on the Lancers lead which grew as high as four-points and the visitors remained consistent in hunt of overtaking the Lancer lead.  Once a stalemate happened at 14-14, this caused the Lancers to use a timeout to talk about resetting and not letting the Marauders trample past their earlier acquired lead. 
 
Unfortunately for the Lancers, the Marauders began to buzz with swinging the momentum back and forth to their side of the court and gaining leads and losing them back to the Lancers in what became a tough battle to round out the first set.  The Lancers would force the Marauders into extra points which saw them in a win-by-two situation at the 24-24 mark. 
 
The teams tied again at 25-25 before McMaster was able to polish off the hungry home squad taking it over the Lancers 27-25 to go up 1-0.
 
The second set was a sequel to the first in the early points with both sides once more trading scoring plays and swapping leads.  McMaster would start to break away during the midway mark going up 13-6 and did not look back.  The damage got deeper on the Lancers side of the court with McMaster continuing to strike and after the visitors broke into the 20-point territory they found themselves down by a nine-point gap. 
 
The Marauders would go on to close out the second set on top 25-21 despite the Lancers putting up an admirable late in the set fight from the 24-18 mark to cause McMaster to use a timeout at 24-21 but in the end, McMaster went up 2-0 in the match.
 
The third set was no exception to the previous five sets played on the weekend between these squads.  Early on both teams exchanged points and leads in a valiant effort put forth by both sides.  The Lancers resiliently attempted to take a set from the Marauders with their closely contested play but in the end, McMaster was able to finish off their weekend in Windsor on a double sweep winning note with their 25-20 third set win and 3-0 victory over the blue and gold to improve to 5-0 and remain undefeated on the year to date.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancer ladies will be back in action in two weeks returning to the Toldo Lancer Centre for a weekend doubleheader at home against the Queen’s Gaels.  The Gaels will be in town from Kingston to play the blue and gold on Friday December 1st at 6:00pm and again on Saturday December 2nd at 6:00pm at the TLC. 
 
Fans can purchase tickets in advance for both games here at golancers.ca/tickets or on Lancer gamedays at the TLC box office ticket gate.  Alternatively for volleyball fans who cannot take in the action in-person, not to worry as the action will be streamed on OUA.TV all season long for Lancer women’s volleyball home games at the TLC.