Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

 

The results don’t make for the most impressive reading, but the Marauders believe that their experience at the EBWM Invitational in Saskatoon will help them transition well into the second half of their conference campaign.

Matched up against three of the toughest teams in the country in an event that spanned Jan. 5-7, including the 2011 national championship finalists from Calgary and the perennial Quebecois powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or, McMaster emerged from the prairies with a bronze medal to their name.

After consecutive losses to the Rouge et Or, Dinos, and the host Saskatchewan Huskies, the Marauders rebounded strongly to claim the consolation match in four sets versus Calgary.

However, coach Dave Preston argues that the progress shown by his squad over the course of the compressed three-day event is more important for the Marauders’ long-term plans than their results.

He believes that much of McMaster’s struggle to find form in the early matches comes as a result of their scant preparation time.

“Every event is unique and this one was definitely unique for us, because we only had three days of prep work available to us,” said Preston of the Saskatoon tournament. “Laval for instance kept their guys until the 22nd and brought them back on the 27th. Our December was a bit different, although I would say that we probably had the most productive December in as long as I can remember.

“That’s a pretty critical time in your season. You can fall behind pretty quickly, you can stay steady, or you can actually move forward. And I think that we actually moved forward this December. The guys got the break that they needed but we also kept the rust off.”

Having to balance the need for holiday training with the rehabilitation demands of a team that was suffering from a litany of injuries at semester’s end, Preston kept the workload light for his charges and required only that they each attend six of 12 workouts scheduled between Dec. 6 and 22.

While this setup worked wonders for the hobbled members of the squad, it understandably bred a degree of rust in the Marauders’ collective game. However, despite their sluggish start in Saskatoon, Preston was pleased by the rapid improvement he witnessed over the course of the three-day event.

“I wasn’t too concerned coming in with only three days of preparation, because we did have such a strong December,” said Preston. “But you could tell that within a competitive model, it had caught up with us a little bit.

“In the first match that we played against Laval, our middles started off pretty slowly. That’s a volume thing. Our middles need a lot of training volume because it’s such a precision-based skill. If you don’t have the training volume underneath it, you can’t fake that.

“The nice thing for us was that our middles got progressively better all weekend to the point that I think we hit 65 percent against Calgary down the middle – up from the minus-22 percent we were at against Laval.”

In addition to the play of McMaster’s central players, Preston noted a marked improvement in his squad’s ball movement from the serve-receive position, and a steady increase in their defensive efficiency.

Equally important as the on-court improvements to the Marauders’ game witnessed over the course of the Christmas break was the desperately needed rehabilitation time that the post-exam period allowed. While nagging issues remain, the team saw the re-entry of several players into the squad’s rotation, including outsides Jeremy Groenveld and Brendan Dennis.

“Luckily we have one of the best physio clinics in the world right here in our own building,” said Preston. “We’re pretty fortunate in that way and our guys are making full use of those facilities.

“I think we’re getting healthier, but that’s a battle that we’re going to have to fight all season long – as is everybody else. In a six or seven-month season, these guys get beat up. The difference between ‘hurt’ and ‘injured’ will be substantial for us.”

One of the by-products of playing with a widely wounded lineup has been a fairly frequent policy of rotation among the Marauders’ players, and that practice is a double-edged sword of sorts according to Preston. The coach knows full well that he must maximize the benefits of a revolving squad while attempting to minimize the cost to the team’s performance.

“The luxury of moving your lineup around is that it creates good depth for you, but the cost of it is that it doesn’t allow you to be as consistent,” said the Marauder bench boss. “What we have to work on now is how we can become more consistent and still be able to manage those personnel changes.”

The maroon and grey will continue to strive for that dependable form as their conference schedule resumes with a weekend doubleheader on Jan. 13 and 14.

McMaster plays host to the RMC Paladins and Queen’s Gaels as part of the school’s Marauder Weekend celebration. Both matches are set to begin at 8 p.m.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

 

It was a nippy night in Kingston, but Dan Groenveld mounted the steps of the charter bus without footwear.

He was sporting more icepacks than items of clothing, but the young hitter seemed as if he couldn’t possibly care less. Close behind, Dave Preston was singing, with a look of calm content spread over his features.

All was right in the world of the Maroon and Grey.

That’s because the Marauders had clinched the most dramatic of wins only minutes earlier, sealing an improbable comeback victory over the course of five sets against the Queen’s Gaels.

The Nov. 19 result brought with it two necessary points for a team looking to stay among the contenders in the OUA, and dealt a further blow to a Queen’s outfit that finds itself reeling at the midpoint of the season.

More importantly however, the emotional victory demonstrated a maturity and spirit on the part of the Marauders that will stand the squad in good stead for the future.

After losing the first two sets of the contest and enduring the jeers of the Kingston crowd, the Maroon and Grey mounted a stirring fight-back to clinch the next three frames and with them, the match.

One of the most instrumental contributors in the completion of McMaster’s thrilling five-set triumph, rookie middle hitter Alex Elliot explained the daunting nature of his first road game against the Marauders’ perennial nemesis.

“I personally felt a lot of nerves going into the game because it was the first really big road match that we’ve played,” said Elliot. “Queen’s and Western are the two rivals, the two powerhouses. Going into that match and having so many of their fans there too, it was pretty nerve-racking, but once the game starts you settle in, and it became a fun atmosphere to play in.”

Beginning the match in top-gear, McMaster was quickly pegged back by a resilient Queen’s defence, led by libero-turned-hitter Alex Oneid. Elliot outlined the frustration that comes with the inability to end points against a stingy opponent.

“They started playing some great defence,” said the middle of his most recent opponents. “They were digging out balls all over the place. It was really frustrating because they were being so scrappy. They would get down and put the ball over, and we would hammer it back down only to see it come back again.

“They were making some great plays.”

The hosts’ outstanding level of play brought two set victories with it, and had the Marauders facing the unenviable task of mounting a comeback in the hostile climes of the ARC. Despite their predicament, Elliot indicates that his squad did not lack for confidence as they faced the looming humiliation of a sweep.

“Guys were down a little bit,” conceded the first-year middle. “But mostly we knew that we just had to find our game. We knew that we came out strong and we knew that we could play with them. We were just waiting for something to spark us.

“Slowly we started to pick it up in the third.”

Even as their game climbed however, the Marauders were very nearly derailed in their comeback attempt, facing hefty deficits in the closing stages of both the third and fourth sets.

Elliot believes that his team’s improbable momentum swing to seal the fourth frame did permanent damage to the Gaels’ mentality.

“The comeback in the fourth was unbelievable,” the rookie middle exclaimed. “To climb back from 23-19 down is pretty much unheard of in men’s volleyball.

“I think they lost all of their momentum. We could see it on the video that their guys were starting to go at each other and getting angry at what they were doing. By coming back in the fourth I think we put them off their game, and it entirely threw them off in the fifth.”

It was during that deciding set that Elliot made his greatest impact on the match, providing the signature moment in a statement match.

With the Marauders leading 9-6, the Gaels looked to their star middle Michael Amoroso to turn the tide. The man known as ‘Amo’ to the competitors of the OUA had been enjoying a dominating day on court, but Elliot would put a violent end to Amoroso’s confident swagger on Nov. 19.

Queen’s attempted a fake to the outside before setting Amoroso in the middle, but Elliot remained unconvinced and emphatically blocked the Gaels’ star. It was an emotional point, and one that the Marauder believes did wonders for his own mentality.

“It really boosted my confidence there,” Elliot said of his pivotal block. “Because I had blocked Joren (Zeeman) heading into the timeout and when we huddled up we all thought that they were going to set Amo on the next point.

“So when I managed to go one-on-one, jump with him, and get the block, it was amazing.”

For the Marauders as a team, the fight-back in Kingston stands as a visceral reminder of the spirit needed to propel them past the best teams in the conference. Elliot knows full well that the Nov. 19 result was a landmark occasion for his squad.

“I thought it was a really big moment for the team and I think that [coach] Dave (Preston) thought it was really big too,” said the rookie middle of the victory. “Just to show that we had that fight in us. To show that no matter what the score is, we’re going to battle it out until the last point, until the ref says that we can’t play anymore.

“That’s the mentality that we took into those winning sets. We had no way of knowing that we would win. But we just wanted to play and win one point at a time, and that’s how we built the comeback.”

Elliot and his teammates will attempt to translate that lesson into further success as they look forward to their final match before the Christmas break.

The Marauders welcome the Toronto Varsity Blues to the Burridge Gym on Nov. 26 before the conference season adjourns for the holidays. Game time for the Saturday night contest is 7 p.m.

 

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

The Marauders are quickly hitting stride, and their rookie contingent is beginning to contribute in earnest.

The Maroon and Grey moved to a record of 3-1 on the season after consecutive blowout road wins in Waterloo and Guelph on Oct. 28 and 29.

Both the Warriors and Gryphons are tough competitors and were supposed to give the visiting McMaster squad close matches. Instead, the Marauders dealt out straight set defeats to each and regained the lethal form that had seen them deliver a similar beating to the Windsor Lancers in their season-opener.

While veteran hitters Jeremy Groenveld, Kevin Stevens, and Jori Mantha carry the majority of the Marauders’ offensive burden, two first-year players have begun to make their presence felt in the lineup.

Dan Groenveld, younger brother of the Maroon and Grey’s decorated elder statesman, has seen spot duty in each of the Marauders matches thus far. While he hasn’t exactly lit up the stat sheet, the young outside hitter has shown an exceptionally live arm and a level of raw athletic ability that bodes well for the future.

And in McMaster’s latest demolition job in Guelph, the younger Groenveld was a perfect three-for-three in his attacking endeavours and chipped in five total points in a cameo role.

Meanwhile, the Maroon and Grey’s marquee middle recruit Alex Elliot made an impressive debut in that same Oct. 29 contest, scoring only three points but demonstrating the steadiest service of any Marauder on court. That skill played a pivotal role in propelling McMaster past Guelph in relative comfort.

Both rookies are faced this season with the unenviable task of learning to balance their training and academic requirements, but each one is confident that they have survived the worst of the adaptation process.

“It’s going pretty well I think,” Elliot said of the university transition. “It was tough at the start, when you barely notice the workload and then it starts piling up faster and faster. You realize that you have three hours taken out of the middle of your day from practices and workouts.”

“So it was tough at the beginning of the year but it’s been a pretty quick adjustment.”

For his part, Groenveld is grateful for the number of competitive repetitions he’s been given to this point in the Marauders’ young season, and argues that maintaining his early form is a matter of constant effort.

“I’ve been pretty happy getting in when I can and playing whatever role the team needs from me,” said the young outside hitter. “It seems to be going well so far. I started on a high and the level has come down a bit, as school got a little tougher.

“It can be hard to keep up, because there are some guys on the team who’ve been here for two or three years and have a bit of an advantage in being used to university life already and the balance you need between training and school.”

Elliot has been faced with a unique challenge this season, as he has been asked to change positions and move from his traditional spot in the middle to the outside. That transition is an exceptionally difficult one, and the young hitter has had his share of trouble adapting.

However, for the time being, Elliot finds himself in the middle once again following veteran Ian Cooper’s broken leg suffered at the conclusion of the preseason.

“It was really tough changing positions, but now I’m back in the middle again after Cooper’s injury,” said Elliot. “So it’s nice to be back, but it was also good to try something new and different on the outside. It’s a matter of a comfort zone in the middle, but I’ll do whatever I can to help the team.

“It would be great to develop some different skills and play a more well rounded game.”

Both rookies recognize that despite their positive starts to their varsity careers, there is much work to be done as they look to improve their games and that of the team. Elliot is focused on improving his quickness, as the university brand of volleyball is markedly faster than the junior club variety.

“I’m still working on speeding things up,” said the middle hitter. “It’s tough to adjust to the speed of things, and offences get faster and faster as teams start to gel throughout the season. I’d like to speed up my blocking and defence and react better to the ball.”

Meanwhile, the younger Groenveld hints that he and his fellow rookie have a role to fulfill in maintaining morale within the team.

“I think we’re trying to keep the energy on the team high,” said the first-year outside. “We’re both high-energy players. We come in and we’re yelling and giving high-fives, and trying to keep things positive.”

The Marauders will hope that such positive momentum continues this coming weekend, as they ply their trade on the road for a second consecutive week at Ryerson. McMaster will confront the Rams in Toronto on Nov. 4.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

 

If the Marauders’ most recent matches demonstrate anything, it is that a single day can make a world of difference in sport.

Facing two top-tier opponents in the opening weekend of their conference season, the Maroon and Grey put on a ruthless display to sweep the Windsor Lancers on Oct. 21 before dropping a four-set decision to the Western Mustangs the following night after a tentative and error-strewn performance.

The Saturday evening contest represented a shocking step back for a team that appeared to be hitting an early stride in their first competitive effort of the young campaign.

Perhaps the area of most concern for the Marauders originated from the service line, where McMaster made eight service errors in the opening set against the nationally ranked Mustangs. Speaking in the wake of his team’s schizophrenic weekend showing, coach Dave Preston pinpointed his team’s deficiency in simple mechanics.

“The obvious thing at this point is just fundamentals,” said Preston. “We didn’t serve well at all, especially in the first set. It’s been our Achilles Heel so far this season and something we’ve been really focusing on. We thought we had it under wraps and I think we took care of it very well on Friday night.

“In that first set on Saturday night it almost exploded on us. We ended up missing eight serves in that set. And a missed serve is a two-point swing. It’s one we don’t get and one they do.”

One explanation for McMaster’s puzzling reversal of fortunes could lie in the respective reputations of their weekend opponents.

While the Lancers remain a team on the cusp of OUA success, the Mustangs have long been a provincial powerhouse, and posed the stiffest test to the Marauders’ championship drive last season.

However for his part, Preston dismisses any suggestion that his squad was cowed by the specter of the London outfit.

“I don’t think our performance has as much to do with who we’re playing as how we’re playing,” explained the coach. “I don’t know what their [Western’s] mentality is when they play us. But I know that with us right now, we’re very focused on ourselves.

“Yes there is an opponent and a competitive level to it, and you can’t ignore that, but we’re trying to minimize that aspect a little bit right now.”

Whatever the cause of McMaster’s struggles against their purple-shirted rivals, the end result was an ugly one. But if Oct. 22 exhibited the effect that errors can have on a squad’s performance, the demolition of the previous night hinted at the pure potency that the Marauders possess when their game remains untarnished.

Preston is well aware that his team will need to play a much cleaner variety of volleyball in order to succeed in the shark tank that the OUA is quickly becoming, but argues that simply avoiding errors is not enough.

“We have to do it properly,” the coach remarked on limiting errors. “We did that in the Western match. We managed our errors pretty well. In fact, we had those eight service errors in the first set and none in the second.

“But in order to do that we were serving them lollipops, and they ended up getting more confidence by running their offence. There’s a competitive pressure that you have to put on a team while you’re managing your errors.

“I’ve said it to the guys a number of times. Every one of our serves makes someone happy.”

Preston knows as well that the Marauders’ competition will not idly wait for the Maroon and Grey to find their feet. McMaster will face challenging opposition nearly every time they take the court, as parity increasingly becomes the watchword in the OUA.

A week after their tussle with last season’s division finalists, the Marauders’ next hurdle comes in the form of two more highly credible squads. The Maroon and Grey’s bench boss will not underestimate the task facing his team as they visit the Waterloo Warriors and Guelph Gryphons this weekend.

“With Waterloo, I don’t even think I would use the term ‘dark horse’,” said Preston. “Because I don’t think they’re going to surprise anybody this year. That team is going to be amazing.

“And Guelph was a couple points away from the OUA final last year in Western’s building. You look at both of those programs and they’re both running at top speed right now. So we’ve got some work to do to go into two road matches and play the way we want to play.”

Whether or not that work on the training court pays dividends will be visible in short order, as the Marauders travel to Waterloo on Oct. 28, before confronting the Guelph Gryphons a night later.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

It’s been an eventful preseason for the Marauders, and one chalked full of high-profile competition.

For their part, the members of the Maroon and Grey will be hoping that such preparation puts them in good stead as they face up to the beginning of their conference campaign on Oct. 21.

The defending OUA champions have tested the waters against some of the toughest squads in the nation as they look to fend off the challengers for their provincial crown.

Those teams included the national champions from Trinity Western and provincial rival Windsor Lancers, before the Marauders closed their exhibition schedule at the Coast-to-Coast Classic tournament at Queen’s.

The inaugural event served as an opportunity for many of Canada’s strongest volleyball powers to acclimatize themselves with Kingston and the venue that will host this season’s CIS Championship tournament.

In an eight-team field, McMaster would finish sixth after finishing 1-2 in the three-stage event. The first knockout match saw the Marauders lose a four-set decision to the UBC Thunderbirds and drop into the consolation rounds.

Here, the Maroon and Grey dealt a straight-set defeat to the Montreal Carabins, before losing the fifth-place match in five seesaw sets to the Western Mustangs.

Despite the mixed results, the Marauders’ veteran outside hitter Kevin Stevens was adamant that the Kingston tournament was a positive experience for he and his teammates.

“It was a good weekend for us, just because we’ve been working on so many things,” said Stevens. “And it was a good opportunity to play a number of teams that we’re hoping we’ll see again in Kingston at the CIS tournament.

“We were able to see and get a lot out of them and learn their tendencies. And we learned a lot about ourselves in the process.”

Part of that learning process has involved adapting to a new style of play, brought on by the addition of setter T.J. Sanders to the lineup and the stated goal of coach Dave Preston to play a quicker brand of volleyball.

Preston and his team know that such a stylistic adjustment is necessary if the Marauders are to compete with the Western powerhouses that have traditionally dominated the CIS game.

And Sanders – who began his varsity career with the illustrious program at the University of Manitoba – will be the creative engine powering that change.

For his part, Stevens indicates that the adoption of the quicker style has taken some time, but argues that once perfected, the system will cause headaches throughout the OUA.

“It’s been our first experience with T.J. on court in a game situation and we’re running a few different things, with our hitters coming in from different angles,” said Stevens. “So at first, when you put it into a game situation it takes some adjustment, and we just have to make sure we don’t move back into the slower style.

“I think our speed’s definitely going to help us out and I don’t think there’s going to be too many teams that will be able to catch up with us at our pace.”

One of the most promising performers throughout the preseason has been rookie Dan Groenveld, who has moved firmly out of his older brother’s shadow and established himself as a legitimate threat on the outside of McMaster’s formation.

Stevens believes that the younger Groenveld’s play has been indicative of a team-wide dependability that gives McMaster crucial depth.

“I’m pretty impressed with the way he (Groenveld) is playing and really all of our rookies have stepped up,” said the third-year hitter. “There’s so much depth on our team, especially on the outside, so that if someone is having a bit of an off day you can throw another guy in and they’ve been ready.

“Nobody’s disappointed if they don’t start because we all know that we all deserve shots.”

The turnover in the team this year has seen the departure of two of the Marauders’ on-court leaders, in libero Josh Lichty and all-star middle Tyler Santoni.

However, Stevens indicates that several veterans have quickly stepped into that void, including himself, fifth-year hitter Jeremy Groenveld, and Sanders.

Most importantly, the Manitoban attacker points out that each member of the team has something to offer.

“It’s really not just a matter of younger guys looking up to the older guys,” said Stevens. “It’s a matter of everyone helping each other out.”

The upcoming opening of the conference season sees the Marauders thrown straight into the proverbial fire, as they welcome divisional powers Windsor and Western to the Burridge Gym.

Last season, those same two teams dealt the Maroon and Grey consecutive defeats to kick off the campaign and forced them to fight uphill to gain OUA supremacy.

Stevens indicates that the Marauders are determined to avoid the same fate this time around, and will be aided by having already played the teams in question.

“We definitely don’t forget what happened last season,” said Stevens. “We went by a ‘worst-to-first’ mentality. But we don’t want to repeat that, we’d like to be on top all the way through and set the tone right away.

“We learned a lot from Western this past weekend and we’ve seen Windsor too. It was nice to be able to see both teams before we play them in conference, and I think we’ll come roaring out of the gates this weekend.”

Marauder fans will be hoping as much as well, and will get to see the early litmus test on home soil. The Maroon and Grey will open their 2011-12 campaign against the Windsor Lancers on Oct. 21, before playing the Western Mustangs the following day.

Both games are slated to get underway at 8 p.m.