Box Score
HAMILTON, Ont. – The McMaster Marauders women’s volleyball team beat the Waterloo Warriors Saturday in a five-set classic in the Burridge Gymnasium.
In their second home game of the season, the third-place Marauders appeared to be making quick work of the Warriors after racing out to an early and one-sided 2-0 lead in the match. But Waterloo refused to roll over and would go on to win the next two sets to force a deciding fifth, in what proved to be the most thrilling match of the season thus far.
McMaster started off with an early lead in the first set. However, the determined Warriors made a comeback late in the game, tying the Marauders at 19 and again at 23. In a close back and forth battle for the final points, the Warriors took the lead, but McMaster held Waterloo at bay and took the set 28-26. McMaster took this energy into the second set, crushing Waterloo 25-14 and appeared to be headed for a clean sweep.
Going into the third set, the Warriors took an early lead and evenly matched play continued between the conference’s third and fourth place teams.
The Marauders kept it close, constantly tying the score with Waterloo, but just couldn’t grasp the lead. The Warriors took the third set 25-22. The intense match continued into the fourth set, but the Warriors would ultimately take it again, coming back from 0-2 against the Marauders and pushing the match to five.
In only the third match in the OUA to go five sets this season, the Marauders showed their strength and resiliency. McMaster took their first lead of the set at 7-6, but neither team would give an inch and traded blows all the way to the final point. The Warriors and Marauders each had opportunities to close out the contest with a number of match points, however it was McMaster that was the first to capitalize and eventually won the final set 20-18, sending Burridge Gym into a frenzy.
The final score sheet points to no decisive advantages in any statistical category for either team. The Marauders victory however was due largely to their aggressive attack which proved to shine in key moments. Emma McKinnon had another strong performance offensively for the Marauders throughout the entirety of the match, earning a game-high 19 kills in 58 attempts, the most by any OUA player this season. McMaster’s Jessie Nairn was also on fire at the net, crushing 16 kills with a hitting percentage of .273.
Defensively, Marauder libero Hayley Brookes held her own with 24 digs, while McKinnon and Nairn added 19 and 16 respectively. Ana Strbac added another five blocks and now leads all OUA players with 18 through her team’s first five matches.
With the win, McMaster moves to 3-2 on the season and will return to action in the New Year, when they take on the Windsor Lancers Jan. 15.