Hamilton, Ont. - The Ottawa Gee-Gees visited the McMaster Marauders in women's volleyball action today at Burridge Gymnasium. 

In the first, the Gee-Gees took a hefty lead 8-2 with the Marauders have communication issues. It didn't get much better from there as Ottawa lead at the technical timeout 16-5. 

Looking like the set was over too early, the Marauders began to mount a comeback. at 20-13, McMaster earned four more points thanks to serving from Shannon McRobert (Whitby, Ont.) to make hte score 20-17. The next point would result in a dragged out rally where Ottawa would swing on a steparound set and score the point. Despite fighting back  with defence in the back court, the Marauders were unable to overcome the deficit and lost the set 25-22.

In the second set, McRobert and other starting middle blocker Taylor Brisebois (Bolton, Ont.) provided big blocks up front to keep the score even early on. Ottawa was the first to take a two point lead at 10-8 and would maintain it until widening the gap to four at the technical timeout. At 16-12, McMaster outside hitter Kailee Stock (Newmarket, Ont.) would swing and score to bring the Marauders within three but Ottawa would quickly earn back two points with an ace hitting the back line. 

The lead would get up to 20-13 before Brisebois blocked two big hits in a row and McMaster would be back within three. A dump from Ottawa setter Christina Grail (London, Ont.) got hte Gee-Gee's back up by five at 22-17 and the last point would be won by Gee-Gee Karina Kruger Schwanke (Blumenau, Brazil). Ottawa would win it 25-20.

McMaster took an early 4-1 lead in the third set and maintained it until 10-6. Ottawa came back strong with four points to tie the game at 10 with big swings from Gee-Gees outside hitter Myriam English (Orleans, Ont.). Ottawa finally took the lead 13-12 but a big hit from Stock tied it back up at 13. 

The Gee-Gees would lead 16-14 after the technical timeout but after some McMaster mistakes, would earn another two at 18-14. Unable to get out of the rotation, the Marauders didn't get the ball back until 22-15 at which point it was too late. The Gee-Gees took the last set 25-18.

Stock, McRobert and Lauren Mastroluisi (Ancaster, Ont.) all accumluated four kills in the loss and Libero Meagan Nederveen (Dundas, Ont.) put up four digs.

Grail recorded 35 assists for the Gee-Gees, English had 13 digs and Schwanke had 16 kills.

The Marauder travel to Kingston, Ont. next weekend to take on the RMC Paladins Friday night and the Queen's Gaels on Saturday.