McMaster men’s volleyball season comes to an end with loss to Laval

KINGSTON, Ont. – The McMaster Marauders wrapped up their season with a loss to the Laval Rouge et Or on Saturday afternoon in Kingston. 
 
The Rouge et Or defeated the Lancers 3-0 (21-25, 23-25, 22-25) in the 2024 U SPORTS consolation semifinal which would determine which team would play for fifth place on Sunday. 
 
A 2024 U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian, Maxime Gratton had an impressive match against the RSEQ silver medalists with 18 kills on 27 total attacks for a .556 percentage while also adding one service to lead the Marauders offensively for the second straight game. 
 
Brendan Mills, a Second Team All-Canadian, had 12 kills, two service aces and a solo block in the fight against the Rouge et Or. Brady Paterson, a member of the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team, finished with six kills in his nationals tournament debut. Defensively, Robbie Fujisawa dug up six balls while recording 32 assists in his third U SPORTS Championship with the maroon and grey. 
  
Laval was led to victory by Nicolas Fortin who had 12 kills and Max Losier who recorded nine. 
 
The first set saw both sides see-saw back and forth and the Marauders battled back from a midway mark deficit to Laval who led 15-11 at one point. McMaster generated some momentum to tie the score at 21-21 but the Rouge et Or scored the final four points of the set to take the set 25-21 to go up 1-0.
 
Set #2 started out similar to the first with both sides trading points again. Despite trailing early on, McMaster took the lead 22-20 to force a Laval timeout. The Quebec squad came out swinging and stole the second set 25-23 to go up 2-0 in the match.
 
With the match on the line, the Marauders came out strong and went up 7-5. Laval settled in and scored the game’s next seven points. McMaster would make it close, trailing by just one at 22-21 but a determined Laval Rouge et Or squad ultimately decided their fate with a 25-22 third set final score and 3-0 heartbreaking match loss to Laval. 

Errors proved to be the difference with the Marauders recording 18 service errors and 19 attack errors to just eight and ten, respectively, from Laval.
 
With the loss, McMaster will not play on the final day of the Championship and has officially concluded another successful season as the OUA Champions.