Hamilton, Ont. - The McMaster men's volleyball team lost their first match of the OUA regular season on Saturday night, falling to the No. 9 nationally-ranked Western Mustangs in four sets.

In the first set, the Marauders took an early 3-1 lead before the Mustangs led 5-4 from then on due to some missed serves for McMaster. Tied at 6-6, the Mustangs went on a run and the first timeout was called by McMaster at 11-8 in favour of Western. Having a tough time returning some Western serves, the Marauders found themselves down 16-11 at the technical timeout. 

Not being able to stop the Western offence, the Mustang lead stayed the same at 20-14 before McMaster attempted to mount a comeback. Swings at the net from Michael Sjonnesen (Cambridge, Ont.) and big serves from Jori Mantha (Vanier, Ont.) got the Marauders within three but big Western blocks at the net would overtake them for the 25-20 first set win.

In the second set, the Mustangs used the momentum from their last set and carried it into this one, gaining the early 9-6 lead. Big swings came from Mantha and Kevin Stevens (Winnipeg, Man.) from the outside but Western would continue to capitalize on McMasters errors. The lead extended to four at 13-9 with both teams utilizing the block for points. 

Later in the set after a timeout from McMaster at 21-15, the Marauders couldn't find a way to get some points for the comeback and the Mustangs took the 2-0 lead with a 25-19 win.

In the third, the Marauders looked alive, starting off the set with some big aces from Mantha. McMaster earned the 9-6 lead with a big hit from Daniel Groenveld (Welland, Ont.), followed by a nice out of bounds save by the rookie and an ace from Stevens. 

The Marauders continued to build their lead until the timeout at 16-11 thanks to Western erroes and big swings up front. The final score of the third would be in favour of McMaster by a score of 25-19 and would force the fourth set. 

The fourth set saw the teams see-saw back and forth for the lead with the score being tied up at 4 and 6. Some serving errors from both teams would cause this, but Western would eventually gain the two point lead at 8-10. Two aces from Western later on in the match would broaden their lead over the Marauders but they wouldn't give up that easily. 

After the technical timeout the Marauders were down 16-11 and scored a consecutive three points to shorten the gap. McMaster would come within one thanks to a big block in the middle from Tyson Alexander (Shanty Bay, Ont.) to make the score 17-16 for Western. Another massive block from Alexander and Stevens would tie it up at 17. Alexander would continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the middle to then tie it up at 18 with a big kill. Then, Sjonnesen would make his presence known in the middle as well to tie it up at 20. 

Big digs from the Western libero would eventually take its toll on the Marauders as they gained a two point lead and never looked back. The final point would be won from using a block.

Mantha would have a game-high 14 kills in the match with 12 digs and two aces. Setter TJ Sanders would earn player of the game honours for his 35 assists and 11 digs and outside hitter Stevens would amass another eight kills for the Marauders. 

The Marauders play the Waterloo Warriors on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. at the University of Waterloo.