Elliot shines as team falters

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

The season hadn’t been completely seamless for the Marauders, but as they entered the OUA Final Four the Maroon and Grey appeared well equipped to compete with their semifinal opponents from Queen’s.

However, over the course of four sets on Feb. 24 in London, McMaster struggled to find form and consistency and paid the ultimate price on the scoreboard. Though they appeared the stronger team for long stretches of the Friday night contest, the Marauders committed far too many errors against a game Gaels squad.

First-year middle hitter Alex Elliot – named this season’s OUA Rookie of the Year on Feb. 22 – bemoaned his team’s spate of mistakes against a foe they knew well.

“That was really tough,” said Elliot of the Marauders’ inefficiency. “Because for the past couple weeks, those were the things we had been doing best and we had been managing our errors. In practices and in other games those things hadn’t gone wrong. The serving errors have always been there, but not as pronounced as they were during those four sets.

“That was the toughest part. The things we usually do best were the things we weren’t doing well.”

The nature of the Friday night defeat may sting most for the Marauders, as their opponents hardly blew them off the court with superior play. Rather, the Queen’s side was the steadier one, and allowed the Maroon and Grey to self-destruct from rally to rally.

Elliot expressed his frustration with what he views as a missed opportunity on his team’s part. Unsurprised by the approach taken by the Gaels, the Marauders were nonetheless unable to answer the bell when it mattered most.

“I felt that they were playing the same way they’ve played all year,” said the rookie middle of the opposition from Queen’s. “They were the exact same team we expected them to be. We just didn’t take advantage of what we should have.”

The Maroon and Grey’s failure to capitalize on their semifinal opportunity ends their bid for silverware this season, but it may prove instrumental in the growth of McMaster’s young squad in the long term. For rookies like Elliot, the defeat was a crucial first taste of Final Four volleyball, and the middle believes that he and his teammates will be all the better for it.

“Building up to the event, I wasn’t really sure how I was going to feel,” said Elliot. “People were asking me if I was nervous, and I realized that I wasn’t until they brought it up. Going into the match I was jacked up and ready to go, and I think most of the guys were.

“I didn’t really feel nerves, because I knew the opponent and I knew what they were going to do. [The match] will help a lot in the future, because I’ll know what to expect next year and how it’ll feel. It’ll be better because it’ll help the team calm down a little more as we go through a match.”

While the present may be bleak, the future appears bright for a Marauder team that received a litany of honours courtesy of the OUA’s year-end awards. Three members of the Maroon and Grey were named as conference Second Team All Stars (Jeremy Groenveld, Kevin Stevens and Jori Mantha) while Elliot and fellow McMaster first-year Dan Groenveld were included in the OUA’s All-Rookie squad.

It was the young middle who made the largest splash however, being singled out as the premier first-year in the province. Elliot expressed his surprise and gratitude when considering a field chalked full of worthy candidates.

“I was surprised, because there were a couple of guys who’ve played very well like [Waterloo outside] Erich Woolley and Dan, who has had a great season too,” said the Marauder middle. “Going into the season I didn’t know what to expect or how much playing time I would get.

“Being able to get a lot of playing time was really good and it was an honour to be named Rookie of the Year. It was a lot of fun and a great first year.”

Elliot’s achievement is particularly remarkable given his previously documented struggles to fit into the Marauder lineup in the early going. Being asked to play on the outside, the rookie floundered in practice, and saw very little of the court in the opening half of McMaster’s season. But when given the chance to return to the middle, Elliot flourished and has yet to look back.

“It really came into my mind as the second half started that I belonged,” said the young hitter of his turnaround. “Through the Saskatchewan trip and the first few games of the semester it really hit me. It was completely different from the first semester because I started on the outside and it was so strange.

“Getting back into the middle and playing brought me into a comfort zone and I felt like I was meant to be in that spot. It was a great feeling and I settled in and went with the flow.”

Rather than resting on his established laurels, Elliot sees the end of the season as an opportunity to improve on several facets of his game. Chief among those is his physicality, as the rookie hitter hungers for more power. But as he points out, any addition to his strength must be augmented by speed.

“There’s a ton things that I want to get better at in the offseason,” said Elliot. “I want to get a bit bigger and stronger in my upper body, but I always want to be faster and up my foot speed so that I can close down those outside blocks quicker. I want to be able to be more physical at the net, and that’s the biggest difference between someone who’s in fifth year and someone who’s in first. It’s the size.

With the Marauders returning to the proverbial drawing board as a team, Elliot will have several months to do such fine-tuning. The summer’s coming provincial competitions should also provide the middle with yet another opportunity to demonstrate his growing skill.