Marauders Volleyball victorious over Ohio State Buckeyes

[adrotate banner="16"]

[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]

This past holiday season, McMaster Marauders handed the Ohio State Buckeyes two losses on their home court in Columbus, OH.

McMaster played Ohio State twice (one exhibition, one regular season match) and won both matches. Ohio State was ranked No. 6 in the NCAA. Second-year outside hitter Andrew Richards and fourth-year outside hitters Jayson McCarthy and Stephen Maar scored double digits for McMaster in both matches.

Last Thanksgiving McMaster made the trip to Columbus and suffered two losses to the Buckeyes. The McMaster team that took the floor in Columbus this time around was different and it showed.

“I think the biggest thing is that we have a better understanding of what our team definition is,” said Head Coach Dave Preston. “We know what we do and we know how we do it.”

Just as it is important to know who you are as a person because it’ll define the way you live, it is important for teams to know who they are because it’ll define the way they play.

In the first match on New Year’s Eve, Ohio State sent McMaster into a quick 2-0 hole, but McMaster refused to let the sweep happen. Going down without a fight is uncharacteristic of them. The Marauders looked to the leadership of Alex Elliott, Stephen Maar, Danny Demyanenko, and Andrew Richards to right the ship and get the team mentally back on track.

“We talked about it the whole time in the timeout. We’re going to outwork these guys. Even if we might not feel like we’re in our best state, we’re going to outwork them,” said Maar.

It took the next three sets to complete the comeback.

“Once we made it to the fifth set we felt there was no way we were going to lose,” Maar said.

“When things get chaotic, we know what we’re looking for. If you don’t know what you’re doing and you push the ‘reset’ button, there’s nothing to reset to,” said Preston. “It’s really important that you define yourselves so that when it’s not going the way you want, you can immediately recalibrate.”

The second match, which was also the Buckeyes season opener, took place on Jan. 2 and McMaster came out even stronger handing Ohio State their first official regular season loss. McMaster walked into Ohio’s gym and beat them twice in three days.

“Quite honestly, we expected to go down there and win. I don’t think anybody else really expected us to, but I think we did,” Preston said.

“I thrive on the thrill of international competition. It was our anthem against theirs. You could feel the tension in the game,” said Maar. “It felt good to win there this year. It shows the growth of our program.”

The wins are very impressive. However, Coach Preston doesn’t want their success to get blown out of proportion.

“We’re not going to get caught up on those Ohio State wins. Ohio State is a reference point for us. It’s somewhere we can look back to in order to see how we responded well against a quality opponent,” Preston said. “When we started out this season we wanted to learn how to take a punch. We took some punches in Columbus, but we got back up on our feet and we continued to fight.”

“I don’t care whether it’s Ohio State or any other NCAA school. I care more that the opponent we were playing had enough game to punch us. More importantly, I care that our team could take the punch and respond. That was important to me,” Preston said. “It was about my guys learning how to deal with the adversity.”

McMaster is confident in their ability and identity. It is scary for opponents when you see a team that is rock solid in their foundation and has battle scars to prove that they’re battle-tested and war-ready. This team is a band of soldiers that has faced and overcome adversity all while consistently performing at a high-level.

McMaster enters their first game week of 2016 at 11-0 and No. 1 in the nation. They host Queen’s on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. at Burridge Gym.

It’s hard to rattle a team like this, especially when they’ve been locked in for so long.

“Remember who we are. That’s the theme. It’s about who we are, what we do, and how we do it,” said Preston. “Our style may not work for the next team down the road, but it works for us. We understand it and we know how to get back to it when we’re off it. Those wins haven’t really changed us. We just like what we do and it’s working for us.”

Photo Credit: Monish Ahluwalia

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]