Box Score The Marauders made it four straight on Friday, as they downed the York Lions over the course of four sets in Toronto.
Set scores were 25-22, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-14 for McMaster, who improved to 4-1 on the young season with the victory. The Lions, meanwhile, suffered their second consecutive loss and fell to 1-2.
Danny Demyanenko dominated Friday's match, posting a game-high 22.5 points on 16-20 hitting against two errors (.700), two aces and four and a half blocks. Second year Brandon Koppers was similarly efficient on the left side, converting 12-17 hitting attempts against three errors (.529) to go along with an ace and a block.
The two teams were neck-and-neck from the opening serve on Friday, and it was a late opening in the final stages that saw McMaster snatch the first set away from their hosts. York served while facing set point, and watched the effort from the line sail wayward.
But the Lions rebounded strongly in the second, and held a slender two-point lead at the technical timeout. They would build on that as the set came to a close, and saw out the second to level the match with a kill from the left wing that caught the near sideline for 25-19.
McMaster took charge in the third set largely as a result of their blocking, which stymied York time and time again as the Marauders built a 16-13 lead at the technical timeout. That advantage grew as McMaster threatened to run away with the set, before the hosts reeled off a scoring run of their own and forced coach Dave Preston to call a timeout.
The Marauders regrouped, and saw out the set by the minimum two points for a 2-1 overall lead.
Losing the third appeared to take the wind out of the Lions, who had already called their second timeout when McMaster raced ahead 13-5. The lead swelled to 11 points at the technical timeout, and the result was academic from there.
After Jayson McCarthy killed cross court from his customary position on the right to bring up match point at 24-13, the Marauders ended the night two points later when the Lions dumped serve for their 15th service error of the match.
McMaster's weekend road trip continues tomorrow, when they travel to North Bay to take on the Nipissing Lakers at 2:00 p.m.
