Mac claims No.1 spot in the CIS

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The Marauders men’s volleyball team are officially the most dominant team in the CIS.

After a couple of bad losses from the former No. 1 team the Alberta Golden Bears, and a very hot winning streak from the Maroon and Grey, they managed to move up to the top of the CIS rankings and aren’t looking back.

The Maroon and Grey are coming off of 13 straight wins, and nine consecutive sweeps.

They haven’t lost a set in nearly three months.

At this point last season, the Marauders were winning matches consecutively, but certainly not sweeping matches consecutively.

“I feel like this team is able to execute better than teams in the past,” said middle, Alex Elliott.

“We can implement game plans better, we can strategize better, and we are able to make changes faster.”

Every year, the team continues to build upon their skills and experience in previous seasons, which results in a new and improved style of play.

Elliott is in his fourth year at Mac and has seen the team change and improve throughout the years.

Unfortunately, he has had to watch the Marauders compete in another successful season from the sidelines due to a couple of injuries.

In August, Elliot underwent a platelet-rich plasma injection to help the damaged tendons in his knee to regrow.

“They took my own blood, spun it and took the plasma proteins out and injected it into the knee to regrow the tendon that was damaged from overuse,” said Elliott.

After a couple of months of recovery, he was ready to come back in mid-October, until another injury had gotten in the way.

In the first week of practice, he went up for a hit, and hurt his shoulder. His knees were also very tender again.

“Obviously when you’re injured you want to jump back into things, you want to get right back in there and do it, but you can’t go too fast, because if you do, then other injuries will happen or you can make things worse,” said Elliott.

He was instructed to take a break at Christmas. Steve Lidstone, the head of strength and conditioning at Mac, gave him a program to help in strengthening his knees and shoulders. Those exercises included stretching and rolling out his muscles after practice or a work out.

The results have shown in both his recovery and play--he was a main contributor in the match against Queen’s, especially in the third set, where he managed to score three aces.

“Now my body feels better than its felt all of last year, and you play with injuries all year, but it’s just nagging…but it’s different,” said Elliott.

“I haven’t not felt knee pain playing volleyball in probably four years, and now I’m playing volleyball without any pain. It’s crazy.”

After being out of the line-up for the majority of the season, his main focus since he has been back has been on trying to keep up with the play as best as he can.

“You have teams with big outside hitters that are going to run a slow offence and hit high and hard, you have teams that run so fast that you’ve got to be ready to react so quickly, so for me, I’m focusing a lot on footwork and being able to keep up with the speed of everything,” said Elliott.

So far, he has been able to keep up with the play very effectively, and for that, he credits the trust and intuition that he experiences with his teammates.

“It’s one of those phenomenon’s that’s built in and you can’t really describe it, you just know what’s going to happen and it’s one of the first times I’ve ever had one of those feelings so fast with a group of people,” said Elliott.

“I’ve been out for so long and having that feeling right away when I come back, it’s encouraging.”

The team’s year-over-year success has been partially because of that very element. The team trusts each other, and know where they are going to be on the court at all times due to repetition, but more importantly, intuition.

The Marauders will be on display at home court frequently in the next couple of weeks, as five out of the six remaining games will be in Burridge Gym.

Although the Maroon and Grey have proven themselves on the road, playing on home court in Marauder territory is sure to be an exciting advantage for the team—especially Alex Elliott, who has not played in Burridge Gym since last February.

“It’s always nice to come back to home court in front of your own fans and having people cheering for you,” said Elliott.

“I can’t wait…I’m fired up.”

The No. 1 Marauders will face the York Lions—the last team to strip them from their consecutive sweep record on Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. in Burridge Gym.

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