Box Score It has been an intense rivalry in recent years, but the McMaster men's volleyball team defeated the Queen's Gaels in straight sets on Saturday afternoon (25-21, 25-12. 25-23) to remain undefeated in OUA play.

Putting one of its younger teams on the floor, Queen's seemed unintimidated to be playing the second-ranked team in the nation and matched the Marauders point for point in the first set. McMaster held a 16-15 lead at the technical timeout and with the score tied 20-20, Coach Dave Preston called a timeout to get his team focused on closing out the set. With Danny Demyanenko serving, the Maroon proceeded to run off four straight points and eventually won the set 25-21.

The second set saw McMaster jump out to an early 10-3 lead, before the Gaels rallied to close to within 11-8. Then it was Mac outside-hitter Stephen Maar who got into a serving groove and the Marauders were on top 16-9 at the technical timeout. Coming out of the break, McMaster continued its strong push and powered through to a 25-12 win and a two-set lead.

Preston was able to rotate fresh legs into the line-up and the third-set saw McMaster carry the play to a 16-12 lead at the technical timeout. However, this time it was Queen's that came out of the break with some intensity and the Gaels fought back to grab a 22-21 lead. Not wanting to have the match extended anymore than necessary, the Marauders regained the lead and closed out the match with a 25-23 win.

The BIG MAC player of the match was setter Austin Campion-Smith, who had 35 assists on the day and did a terrific job setting up the Marauder attack. Outside-hitter Jayson McCarthy had a strong match and was the top Marauder scorer with 12.5 points.



McMaster will now host the RMC Paladins on Sunday, November 17 at 3-pm in the Burridge Gym as the second-half of a doubleheader. The Marauder women play Brock at 1-pm.