Coach Dave Preston made it very clear. He does not believe in the early CIS top ten rankings, and what they say about his team.
“Rankings are a coaching poll, I don’t believe that it’s a true indicator of our performance level…I don’t think that rankings define our team.”
The CIS top ten rankings are viagra mail order comprised by the coaches within the league that vote for the teams that they believe are the best in the country, but they cannot vote for their own team.
Preston takes the Marauders third-place CIS ranking to open the season as a compliment from the other coaches, but he is unsure of how they got to be ranked in third spot, especially without any extensive knowledge of the team’s performance, or play, other than their match against Western that they won 3-2.
“I think it’s neat that we’re kind of considered to be one of the top three teams in the country right now, but again it’s a popularity poll…We played Western, beat them in five, and got ranked third in the country…Like how does that really work?” added Preston.
Despite Coach Preston’s view of the inaccuracy of the rankings, this past weekend, they were able to pull off an encouraging win over the second ranked team overall – the Trinity Western Spartans.
In this match, the Marauders took the game in five sets (3-2), but in the fourth set, the game began to look extremely familiar to their game played the previous night against the first-ranked Alberta Golden Bears.
The match against the Golden Bears on Oct. 18 saw the Marauders down 2-1, holding a lead with a score of 22-17 in the fourth set, before the Golden Bears pulled out of the set 25-19. McMaster ended up letting the game slip away from them, which gave the Golden Bears the 3-1 win.
The following night, the Marauders saw themselves in the exact same scenario as the night before: they were down 2-1, the score was 22-17 in the fourth set, but this time, the Marauders did not let the game slip away.
“The captains on our team recognize the scenario, know that we didn’t take advantage of it before, and put a huge conservative effort to say we need to make sure we take advantage of it in this one, and did, and ended up winning the match in five” said Preston on the courageous win.
In order for the Marauders to have won the match against the Golden Bears in a similar fashion to the way they won against the Spartans, Preston believes that the consistency and repetition of good serving and passing during the game would have given them an extra push against the dominant team.
“It was our serving and our passing that I guess kind of eroded if you want to put a term on it,” said Preston.
“Alberta just showed how they are a little bit more repeatable than we are right now…we know that we can pass a good ball and our lesson right now is to make sure we pass a good ball as often as possible, and especially when it counts, and so that’s what I think the difference is between us and Alberta right now.”
The Marauders learned a lot from their trip, finishing with a record of 2-1 in the tournament, which also included their win against the host team, the Calgary Dinos, which was a reassuring defeat for the Maroon and Grey, as they now know early on that they can play well on the road and can upset the home team in their own territory.
“Beating Calgary, in Calgary, was pretty good…we can play on the road,” said Preston.
The team is also more determined from the tournament, and wants to get on the court as much as possible to win some more games, and to work out the preseason kinks.
“One of the things you’re always a little bit concerned about as a coach is what your motivation is coming home from an event like this. And I think we probably are a little bit more motivated now than we were before we left. So, that’s a good thing for us,” said the coach.
The motivation that is also present for the team stems from some of the veteran players, and the captains of the team that Preston refers to as the “leadership council” that have taken some of the rookies under their wing.
This leadership council consists of Austin Campion-Smith, Jori Mantha, Tyson Alexander, Alex Elliot and Danny Demyanenko – five experienced players that have helped out and have mentored some of the rookies early on this season
“Our leadership council is tremendously influential, and leadership is very important,” said Preston.
“Each one of them kind of grabbed two guys, and they just go, so instead of one guy kind of being at the front of the pack and everybody else behind him it’s almost like one straight line and going on mass.”
The combination of leadership, incredible offense, and solid defence is what has made the Marauders so successful in the past, and it appears that it’s this same combination that continues to make them successful so far this season.
Despite the very early success, Coach Preston still has questions for the team that he expects to be answered throughout the duration of the season.
For his defense, it’s a question of endurance.
“Can we play defense? Yes. For how long, and when it counts? Those are going to be the questions.”
For his offense, it’s a question of repetition.
“Is our offense good? Yeah. Will it be better, and repeatable when it counts? That’s the question.”
The Marauders will look to provide a response for these questions in regular season action, which takes off on Friday, Oct. 25 in Windsor against the Lancers, and on Saturday, Oct. 26 in London against the Western Mustangs.
Coach Dave Preston was in Turkey just a month and a half ago, where he coached the Canadian Junior National Team to a 12th place finish, right behind the USA team. Now, he finds himself getting ready to hop on a plane to the confines of Calgary, Alta., to face some fierce Canada West competition for the Dino Cup in the Jacks Simpson Stadium at the University of Calgary.
cipro no prescription overnight fedex mastercard
The team will get their start on Oct. 18, and for Coach Preston, the tournament will serve as practice for the core elements that the team will develop over time
“We could go three-and-oh, we could go oh-and-three, the difference in our performance for this might be minimum just because the competition is very, very good,” said Preston.
The competition in the Canada West Conference is so dominant, six out of the top ten teams in the CIS top ten rankings are from the west.
With this in mind, Preston is sure to concentrate more on the process of fine-tuning, and improving each game, than on the outcome of the matches or the tournament.
“We’re going to focus on our performance instead of our results… if we take care of our performances out there, then the wins will take care of themselves,” added Preston.
The focus on performance that Preston speaks of was especially present in the Marauders first preseason game against Western, where they managed to hold them off, and pull out an encouraging comeback late in the game.
The Marauders ability to regroup under pressure and remain collected to pull off the win was what Preston attributed to the overall character of his strong team.
“The thing I was most pleased about was their character; we were up two-zero, kind of got a little bit sidetracked, kind of lost our way…[we were] down in the fifth as well and still had the character to come and close it out. So that, that was refreshing. That was nice to see,” added Preston on the win.
The Marauders will try to carry their character over to Calgary this weekend, where they will be up against the Calgary Dinos, the Alberta Golden Bears, and the Trinity Western Spartans. Two of those teams – the Golden Bears and the Spartans, are ranked first and second respectively in the current CIS top ten rankings, while McMaster is ranked third.
Although the tournament is miles away, Coach Preston stresses that they will be using the tournament as a useful and educational stepping stone for the rest of the season.
For him, there are a couple of major advantages of going out west to play in such a competitive pre-season tournament.
“One of the things I think we do pretty well is information gathering; so I think we’re going to be able to get some good information on some teams that we don’t see very often,” said Preston.
“It’s going to give us a chance to do and try some things against teams that aren’t in our league all the time. So we don’t have to concern ourselves too much about someone getting too familiar with us to know what we’re doing.”
Another major advantage of going to the tournament in Calgary is the venue of the Jacks Simpson Stadium, which will be hosting the 2014 CIS Championships – a championship tournament that the Marauders will hope to compete in come February
“We get to play three matches in that gym, getting used to that environment, getting used to all the other stuff that comes along with the CIS Championship, that we won’t have to do for the first time, if we’re fortunate enough to get there” added Preston.
This is not just any trip for the Marauders; it is a trip of observation and note-taking for the team, as they will hope to come back to Calgary once again in a couple of months to fight for a national title.
“We’re not just taking the trip, we’re going to where we would like to go to again… so, this is a reconnaissance trip, we’re going in to do some recon, and see exactly what it’s going to take, and get very, very familiar with everybody.”
The Marauders will start getting very familiar with the west coast on Friday Oct. 18, when they take on the Calgary Dinos at 7:30 p.m.
By: Laura Sinclair
The Marauders men’s volleyball team remains the number-one team in the OUA and the second-ranked team in the CIS after a successful road trip to Windsor and London to take on some fierce OUA competition.
The Marauders team has proven to be unstoppable, remaining the only undefeated team left in the OUA.
After spending their Friday night in Toronto to watch the Vanier Cup, the Marauders had to hop on a bus and hit the road early on Saturday to Windsor to take on the Lancers.
Despite the long bus ride, the team still managed to bring their A game, winning the match 3-1.
The Lancers surprised the powerhouse Marauders team in the first set, winning it 25-19.
The momentum from the Lancers would not last long, as the Marauders got a hold of it in the second set and dominated the Lancers, winning it quite easily 25-9, proving that the first set was just a fluke.
The third and fourth sets were also won quite handily by the Marauders with scores of 25-20 and 25-21, respectively.
The leading scorer for the Marauders was Stephen Maar, who led the team with 19 points and 15 kills, followed by Jayson McCarthy with ten kills and three blocks, Kevin Stevens with 11 kills and one block, and Dany Demyanenko with six kills, four blocks and one ace.
The Marauders’ winning streak was not done yet, as they traveled to London on Sunday to take on their rivals, the Western Mustangs.
The Marauders were off to a slow start in the first set, trailing the Mustangs on the score board. Once the team got their act together, they ended up dominating the remainder of the set, and winning it in a close score of 25-23.
The Marauders kept the momentum going in the early part of the second set, getting up to a six-point lead, but Western’s Phil James scored continuous points on his serve, giving Western the lead and, ultimately, the win.
Western won the set 26-24.
The Mustangs was on a roll in the third set, leading 8-4 early on, until Marauder Alex Elliot took to the court.
Elliot brought a series of blocks, helping the Marauders to get the lead and the win, 25-20.
The fourth set saw Marauder dominance once again, as the men in maroon ran away with it, winning the set 25-19.
Dany Demyanenko was the leading scorer for the Marauders, dominating with 20 points, 17 kills, two blocks and one ace; a performance that contributed to his well-deserved title of “Athlete of the Week.”
Right behind Demyanenko in points was Jayson McCarthy with 14.5, 10 kills, 2.5 blocks and two aces, Kevin Stevens with 14 points, Stephen Maar with 12 points and Austin Campion-Smith with 43 assists in the match.
Next up for the Marauders men’s volleyball team is a break for exams.
OUA regular season action gets started again in the Burridge Gym on Jan. 11, when the Marauders will take on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
By: John Bauer
After another perfect weekend, the only thing that has slowed the men's volleyball team's ascent farther ahead of the pack in the OUA standings is their bye week.
They started the weekend off Saturday in downtown Toronto against the
Ryerson Rams. The Rams managed to take them to 28 points in the second set, but still fell in three, 25-15, 28-26, 25-22. As usual, examination of the score sheet shows several strong performances by the Marauders and many zeroes for the opposition.
Stephen Maar and Dany Demyanenko led the McMaster attack, with eight and seven kills, respectively. Kevin Stevens and co. patrolled the back court, digging the ball 21 times throughout the game. Jayson McCarthy provided a solid mix of attack and defense, picking up nine points, behind only Jimenez's ten.
On Sunday, McMaster's tallest traveled just up Yonge Street to take on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. Though the venue was different, the result was much the same, as McMaster once again won in straight sets, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23. Stephen Maar and Kevin Stevens would lead the offense this time, with nineteen kills between them, while Stevens and Daniel Groenveld led the team in digs. Tyson Alexander joined in with 11 points, two off of Maar's team high.
The week ahead has the Maroon facing off with the 1-4 Guelph squad on Friday night, in a game originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Sunday brings a clash of the OUA titans, as McMaster plays the only other undefeated team, the Waterloo Warriors, in a potential championship preview. Fans will want to make their way to Burridge gym well before the 3 p.m. start time to get the best possible seats for what promises to be a memorable game.
McMaster's men's volleyball team continues to put the OUA on notice that they are the team to beat this season, after two convincing victories over the weekend.
On Friday, the Marauders would take on last year’s OUA Champion, the Queen’s Gaels. The Gael’s are a perennial force in the OUA but are facing a minor rebuilding year after the graduation of some of their best players. Despite a down year for the program, Queen’s put up a stronger fight than the 3-0 loss would suggest.
In the first set, the Marauders would come out swinging and prove worthy of the No.3 ranking in the CIS. This set would be the largest margin of victory with a score of 25-19.
The second set would be closer than the first, as Queen’s looked to rebound from a disappointing result. The two OUA giants exchanged points throughout the set, until finally McMaster was able to separate with a 26-24 win and their second victory of the season only one set away.
Winning the third set would not be a simple task as the Gael’s refused to take the loss without a serious comeback attempt. But with their backs against the wall, the Queen’s team could not hold off the Maroon and Grey. Mac took the final set and sealed the victory with a score of 25-22.
Another Kingston, Ont. team would visit Burridge Gym this weekend to take on the Marauders. Royal Military College came to the McMaster campus sporting a 0-1 record after suffering a 3-0 defeat the previous night at the hands of the York Lions.
McMaster's tallest made short work of the Paladins, winning in three sets, 25-7, 25-13, 25-6. The men controlled the entire game with skill and precision, making only five attack errors to RMC's thirty-one. McMaster overpowered the Paladins in every aspect of the game, with eleven service aces to RMC's zero, and six of nine players recording a trio of kills or more.
The Maroon's fine ball control was evident as trough all three sets, the Paladins only managed a single block.
Standout performances against RMC include: Ian Cooper, whose twenty-one assists doubled the entire Paladins team; Tyson Alexander, who drilled six aces and whose serving was near-unreturnable all game; and Daniel Groenveld, who laid out for seven digs. RMC's Eric Hawn was the lone bright spot on his team, scoring a respectable eleven assists to lead the Paladin effort.
Mac sits 3-0 atop the OUA table, looking like an early contender for the OUA championship. The next match for McMaster is a trip to Ryerson University to take on a 1-1 Rams team.
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.
Fraser Caldwell
Sports Editor
For a Marauder team that had sealed the second seed in the OUA playoffs a week before, the season ending tilt at York on Feb. 12 meant little to nothing. But don’t tell that to Marc Begin.
The rookie member of the Maroon and Grey had seen little to no time on court this season, being buried on a stacked depth chart and struggling to adapt to the university game. But with his team trailing two sets to one against the Lions, Begin was inserted into the lineup to test his luck against the Marauders upcoming quarterfinal opponents.
More than simply playing out his rare cameo, Begin excelled. Although he has practiced and been penciled in throughout the season as a libero, the Marauder rookie played on the outside of the McMaster formation and provided an instant attacking spark.
In less than two full sets, Begin notched seven total points and converted six of nine hitting attempts. His renaissance lifted the Marauders’ spirits, and the visitors would win the final two sets to snatch a five-set victory from the jaws of defeat.
Winning the game ball from his coach and teammates for his late-game heroics, the Marauder rookie expressed his surprise at his sudden discovery of form.
“I’d say that I was surprised,” said Begin of the Sunday afternoon performance. “One of the main reasons that I wasn’t getting as much time was that I’d been struggling at practice. This being my first year I’ve felt like I’ve been having trouble getting into the swing of things.
“Sunday was the first time that I really felt comfortable. Everything seemed to be going right for me for the first time since the season started. It was just one of those days.”
Part of Begin’s battle this year has been a problem known to any first-year varsity athlete: the challenge of learning to adequately balance school and training. But while he admits to suffering early in his university career under the burden of scheduling, the rookie Marauder is confident that he has established a workable routine that does justice to both his school and workout requirements.
“I definitely like the scheduling format better than high school,” said Begin of the more free-flowing class schedule of the university level. “But it’s still not easy though, because you’ve got to fit your studying into some pretty awkward times. And with my program, all of my classes are conflicting with practice.
“I’ve had to miss some practice time and that makes it hard to get the reps in and keep up with the rest of the guys sometimes. But I think I’ve figured a routine out and it seems to be working for me.”
On court, Begin’s adaptation to the more demanding university game hit early snags, and saw him drop down the depth chart at the libero spot. More seasoned Marauders Sean Lowe and Chris Spack were performing well as a defensive tandem, and the rookie appeared to be the odd man out.
Interestingly, it is because of his difficulties at libero that Begin earned the opportunity to cut his teeth on the outside.
“Because of injuries, I’ve been filling in on the outside,” the rookie Marauder explained. “I’ve always played that position so it wasn’t a problem for me. But I tried out here as a libero, because I knew that my natural skill set would help me in that role.
“Ironically, I’ve been having more trouble with those skills, and guys like Spack have really stepped up and filled that role.”
Fitting in among a close-knit group of players is a trying process for any newly recruited rookie, but it has been particularly tough for Begin this season. Struggling to find his game meant simultaneously struggling to endear himself to his teammates.
But the Marauder rookie believes that his breakthrough effort against York has gone a long way toward breaking down that barrier. With teammates and coach alike heaping praise upon him, Begin was the centre of attention in the wake of the Sunday afternoon win.
“It felt great obviously,” said Begin of the reaction of his teammates. “In one of the chats I had with Dave after the first half of the season, he told me that in order for the guys to be more comfortable with me on court I was going to have to make an impression and step it up.
“I feel like I’ve finally done that and the guys saw what I could do. Hopefully they’ll have a little more trust in me and I really want to keep that up.”
Begin knows that the onset of the playoffs most likely spells his return to the sidelines, but remains focused on the task at hand alongside his teammates. Hosting a quarterfinal rematch with the Lions team the rookie so recently torched, Begin indicates that the Marauders are fully focused on the opening stage of the OUA postseason.
“We’re taking it one step at a time,” said the rookie of his team’s approach. “Right now we’ve got York in front of us again, and even though we just played them on Sunday, we’ve told ourselves that it’s a clean slate. We’re going to treat it like any other playoff game.”
McMaster will look to deal a more lasting loss to the Lions when they host the York club at the Burridge Gym on Feb. 18. The quarterfinal is set to get underway at 8 p.m.
Fraser Caldwell
Sports Editor
The Marauders had a well-considered plan of attack in hand as they entered Alumni Hall on Jan. 28 to take on the top team in Ontario.
Unfortunately, when that approach failed to yield results against the Western Mustangs, the Maroon and Grey proved unable to adapt under fire. The result was the most humbling loss of the Marauders’ season, coming as it did in straight sets and never seeming in doubt.
McMaster setter T.J. Sanders – who returned to action in London after a concussion – believes that his team’s defeat followed from a static style of play that never addressed the tactical adjustments brought about by the host Mustangs.
“I think we had a really good game plan, and going into [the match] we prepared the way we needed to,” Sanders said of the Saturday afternoon clash. “But [Western] changed a few things in their game, and we have to change along with them. For example, Garrett [May] kept hitting cross-court and the middles kept hitting the ‘T’s.
“It took us too long to make those adjustments. It should just be a point-by-point thing, where the next time a player does something we’re there with the block or the dig. We didn’t do that very well and it let them play their own game and get confident. On the flip side, we couldn’t stop that and it obviously brought us off our game.”
In the wake of the sobering defeat in London, Sanders indicates that the Marauders reiterated their need to focus on fundamentals, areas such as serving and passing in which they struggled in the loss.
“We agreed that we needed to take care of the simple stuff,” said the setter. “The word we used was ‘obvious,’ because we needed to fix some obvious things. We didn’t serve very well or pass very well. They served pretty well and passed pretty well.
“We were all upset about it, but at the end of the day, we had another great team to play the next day – the third-best team in our conference. We knew that we had to put it behind us, and that we’ll get another shot at them.”
The team talk evidently had its desired effect, because the Marauders responded strongly in their bounce-back game against the Lancers in Windsor. A notoriously dangerous squad, the Lancers were swept aside in three fairly routine sets on Jan. 29 as the Maroon and Grey reasserted their quality.
It was an unusually tame effort from the Windsor side, and Sanders believes that much of the team’s trouble derived from the absence of outside hitter Ryan Le through injury, forcing the Lancers’ libero to move to the wing.
“I was a little surprised,” said Sanders of Windsor’s weak showing. “Especially in their gym, because when we played there last season they played a phenomenal match. I think though that missing Ryan Le on the outside really hurt them. He’s a pretty big chunk of their offense and big voice for their team.
“With him out, they had to put their libero on the left side and bring in a backup. It’s tough for any team to adjust to something like that.”
Whatever the reason for their opponents’ struggles, the Marauders gladly took the Sunday victory and the two points that accompanied it. The result moved McMaster’s record to 12-3 on the season, keeping the squad in firm control of second spot in the OUA standings.
Despite their humbling Jan. 28 loss to the Mustangs, the Marauders remain ninth in the CIS national rankings.
McMaster will play its final home contest of the conference schedule this coming weekend, as they welcome the Ryerson Rams to the Burridge Gym on Feb. 3. While the Rams have struggled this season and find themselves with only three wins to their name, the Torontonian outfit caused significant waves throughout the OUA with an upset victory over the Marauders on Nov. 4.
Sanders made no bones about the fact that the upcoming tilt against the Rams is viewed by he and his teammates as a chance for much-needed revenge. In addition, a dominant win would send a powerful message of McMaster’s improvement as a unit.
“It’s important for us to stick a message out there,” said the setter. “We obviously didn’t play our game when we were at Ryerson and dropped that game. I think it’s very important for us to have a good week in practice, and we’ll come out blazing and do what we have to do.”
McMaster will have its chance to do just that on Feb. 3, as the Marauders celebrate Senior Night in honour of their graduating players. The contest with the Rams will follow this ceremony, and is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m.
Fraser Caldwell
Sports Editor
The course of every season poses challenges and demands adjustments on the part of any team.
For their part, the Marauders have shown a remarkable ability to roll with the proverbial punches as injuries strike and squad roles continue to morph.
With backup players forced into central positions, young players seeing considerable court time and veterans grappling with the added responsibility of their seasoned status, the Maroon and Grey continue to rumble toward the top of the provincial standings.
Over the course of another successful weekend, the Marauders notched consecutive home court victories over the Waterloo Warriors and Guelph Gryphons and offered further proof of their collective strength in the process.
Austin Campion-Smith – who has seen limited action for much of this season in relief of setter T.J. Sanders – proved more than able to man the creative controls at the head of the Marauder offence with Sanders recovering from a recent concussion.
McMaster coach Dave Preston lauded his sophomore setter’s weekend efforts, praising Campion-Smith’s understanding of his role and continual readiness for action.
“He realizes his own value to our program,” said Preston of his substitute playmaker. “One of the things I stress to our student-athletes is to just be ready when I call their number, and sometimes they wish their number was called more often.
“But Austin is an amazing example of that concept in action. When I call out number eight, number eight is ready to go.
“He’s ready to play and he’s a great kid. Am I surprised by his success? No. But am I impressed by it? Absolutely. It’s a tough thing for a 19, 20-year old kid to step in. At this stage, every one of our games is a playoff match, and he’s handling it incredible well.”
Another young Marauder has made the most of an opportunity originally granted to him through a teammate’s injury. Alex Elliot – one of the most highly touted members of McMaster’s 2011 recruiting class – has grabbed hold of a starting spot at the middle position after a turbulent start to his career with the Maroon and Grey.
A middle hitter in high-school and at the club level, Elliot faced a transition to the outside of the Marauders’ formation as a relatively short central player at the height of 6’5”.
However, with Ian Cooper breaking his leg earlier this season, Elliot returned to his roots in the middle and hasn’t looked back since, cementing his place in the starting lineup.
Preston believes that the importance of middles in McMaster’s system has helped his rookie hitter embrace his role in the center to an entirely new degree.
“When he played club at high-school, the middle was not an integral spot because they tend to be more outside hitter dominated systems,” said the Marauder bench boss. “That’s not the way it works here. Our system is predicated on a strong middle attack. If we own the middle of the court, we have a better chance of owning the match.
“Being led back into that, especially after having taken some reps outside, has really led him into a mindset where he’s having fun. It’s almost a rejuvenation of sorts. He feels involved, and his attachment to playing in the middle is much greater than it was when he was looking in from the outside.”
Elliot’s partner in the middle, Tyson Alexander has taken the team by storm this season, and his 23-point performance on Jan. 21 serves as a further reminder of his incredible personal progress.
Recruited for his raw athletic potential, Preston believes that Alexander is gaining the volleyball-specific awareness needed to round out his game.
“His sport IQ is very high, and his volleyball IQ is going up every day,” said the coach of his third-year middle. “You can’t be submerged in the way that we play the sport around here and not get better at it. You either sink or swim and he’s swimming.
“You can tell that he’s carrying himself like a different dude. He’s not zoning out like he used to and being overwhelmed. He comes into timeouts knowing what’s going on.”
The Marauders’ growth has been aided by the steady leadership of their veteran players, chief among them being outside hitter Jeremy Groenveld. Returning to action from a slew of persistent injuries, Groenveld led his team through a rough patch of play against the Gryphons to secure the victory.
Preston indicates that in the wake of the Marauders’ lackluster third set on Jan. 21, the veteran outside was the catalyst behind the team’s renewed effort following the changeover.
“The guy who impressed me most was Jeremy,” said Preston. “As a senior on that team, he basically just grabbed those guys and said, ‘look, this is the way it has to go.’ We had an opportunity to make it more difficult for ourselves in that match and we have in the past. But I’m very confident about the hands that our leadership is in right now.”
That veteran guidance will need to continue as the Marauders face another imposing weekend of play, travelling to London on Jan. 28 to take on the conference-leading and CIS no. 6 Western Mustangs before visiting the Windsor Lancers the next afternoon.
For his part, Preston believes that the upcoming matches will serve as a crucial proving ground for his squad. He is confident that the Marauders are well prepared for the challenge ahead.
“We got two wins on the weekend and showed that we can play tough on a back-to-back,” said the coach. “Now we’ve got to do the two matches back-to-back on the road with the added adversity. They are as prepared for us as we are for them.
“But we are ready, we’ve got our information, and we know what we’ll be d 
Fraser Caldwell
Sports Editor
The story is formulaic enough at this point to warrant a movie franchise. Whenever they happen to meet, the Marauders and the Gaels inexorably play to a fifth set. And once that final frame is done and dusted, it is McMaster that comes out on top.
That pattern has held for the past few seasons, and it gained yet another piece of corroborating evidence on Jan. 14. Over the course of five grueling sets on that Saturday night at the Burridge Gym, the Marauders added a ninth win to their season tally at the Gaels’ expense.
The victory against their longtime nemesis improved McMaster’s record to 9-2, and confirms another sweep of the season series in the favour of the Maroon and Grey. With the conference leaders from Western suffering their first loss at the hands of the Waterloo Warriors, the Marauders now edge two points closer to the OUA pace setters.
After the weekend win, outside hitter Jori Mantha reaffirmed that he and his teammates have come to expect a battle against the Gaels. Their collective experience in matches against the tricolour squad breeds a measure of comfort every time they face up to the task of playing Queen’s.
“It’s been five straight [wins] since I got here,” said Mantha of the head-to-head matchup. “It’s always been my favourite match to play against that team, especially because I have friends there. In terms of how we play them, it always turns out to be a very interesting game and a good fight.
“It almost seems that we know now that we’ll need to find a way through, to figure out the problems we have and get the win.”
Getting the win has been the constant for McMaster in the team’s recent meetings with Queen’s, and yet the vast majority of those results have gone down to the wire. Fans of both teams recognize at this stage that the fixture is guaranteed to be an exciting one, and an emotional one for players and partisan onlookers alike.
For his part, Mantha indicates that the Marauders themselves are keenly aware of the entertainment value that their tilts with the Gaels entail. Despite the excitement involved, the sophomore believes that it is his team’s ability to stay on track that has led them to continued success in the matchup.
“We joke around about that on the bench, the idea that we always give the crowd a good show,” said Mantha. “The truth of the matter is that we have a game plan and we stick to it. That’s really what it comes down to, that we’re able to push through it even when we’re down.
“We know that we’ve been able to come back in the past, so that really helps mentally and helps us do the same thing again because we’ve been there before.”
McMaster appears to dig in readily against their rivals, particularly when they have their collective backs against the wall as they did in the fourth set of Saturday’s contest.
Trailing two sets to one and by as many as four points in the dying stages of the fourth frame, the Marauders found an extra gear to power through to the fifth. From there, momentum carried the home side to another titanic win in this hotly contested matchup.
Mantha believes that the determination that his squad exhibits in matches against the Gaels often comes from the fear of losing to the Marauders’ longtime rivals. He describes his own thought process at the time as one of resolve not to see the team’s five-game win streak slip away.
“That’s what I was saying to myself, that I couldn’t afford to lose this win-streak now, and that I would push myself and my team to get through it,” said the sophomore hitter of his fourth set mentality. “I’m pretty sure that everyone thinks that way and that they know that we can pull out games like that.”
One of the most encouraging features of their continued success on court is the Marauders’ ability to notch victories while sporting patchwork, rotating lineups. While the holiday break allowed many players crucial rehabilitation time, it also proved costly on the personnel front.
During the bronze medal match that concluded McMaster’s competition at the EBWM Invitational Tournament in Saskatoon, starting setter T.J. Sanders suffered a concussion, keeping him out of the lineup for this past weekend’s matches.
While no official timeline has been set for his return to action, Sanders has indicated that he is not experiencing any substantial symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, and should be back in action shortly.
In his absence on Jan. 14, McMaster turned over the control of its offence to the creative duo of Austin Campion-Smith and Chris Spack, both of whom filled the setting void admirably in the five-set triumph.
Mantha was effusive in his praise for Spack in particular, who had only a week of practice at the setting position under his belt before the Saturday tilt against the Gaels.
“It helps that we have such depth to our team that everyone can perform,” said Mantha. “It really helps us when someone can come in like Chris, who’d only been practicing at setter for a week after TJ’s concussion. To have him come in and have him perform so well is great.
“Everyone was really well physically and mentally prepared.”
That same level of preparation will be necessary this coming weekend, as the Marauders face a challenging weekend doubleheader against the Waterloo Warriors and Guelph Gryphons.
Waterloo in particular should pose an intriguing test, fresh as they are off of upset victories over the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers. McMaster will play host to the Warriors and Gryphons on Jan. 20 and 21 respectively, with both games slated to begin at 8 p.m.
