Mac faces early challenge

Fraser Caldwell / Sports Editor

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

The tinkering continues for the McMaster Marauders, but their competition is hardly waiting for it to come to an end.

With a young Marauder squad still looking to gel, the Waterloo Warriors inflicted a second loss on the team on Oct. 28. The consecutive defeats are a sobering reminder to McMaster that their growth as a team must come about under the constant pressures of the OUA season.

The Waterloo result saw the Maroon and Grey’s early successes on the attacking front reversed, after the visitors had taken the first set. For coach Tim Louks, the key to the change of momentum lay in the Warriors’ ability to shake the Marauders from their technical comfort zone.

“I think our game plan was pretty obvious,” Louks said in the wake of the loss. “We were focused on pounding the ball through the middle and making them stop us. But as Waterloo put more serving pressure where they needed to, we were moved out of our system more often.

“If you look at our performance results from the outside hitters as a whole, we either made no impact on the match whatsoever or a negative one.”

The early season adversity stands as the first major test for a largely unproven group of Marauders, and Louks indicates that dealing with such issues is the strength of experience.

“We don’t have the years of experience to sustain performances when we’re in the middle of exams, or struggling with injuries. What we miss most from last year is the twenty years of combined experience from players who dealt with those challenges.

“We have first year players who are being asked to do a lot with very little opportunity to be good at those things.”

Despite the setbacks, Louks remains resolute in his determination to find the winning formula, and instill winning values in his players.

“I’m not going to stop searching for the right combination, for the right influences and the right techniques,” said the coach. “We’re going to keep clawing and fighting because we deserve that. But we need to remember that we need to be focused in our commitments.”

The Marauders will look to take a step in the right direction this weekend, as they travel to Ryerson on Nov. 4 before returning to the Burridge Gym for a 1 p.m. tilt against Lakehead at the Burridge Gym.