Box Score It was volleyball of the highest quality at the Burridge Gym on Friday, and the Marauders got the better of it en route to an impressive sweep of the Waterloo Warriors.

Emotions were running high over the course of the three-set slugfest, which the two teams played in front of a packed and raucous Burridge crowd. The Marauders produced their best volleyball of the young season to fend off the very game Warriors, winning by scores of 25-21, 25-23 and 25-18.

It was the sixth consecutive win for the Marauders, who have now clinched 18 of 19 sets played since their season-opening loss. McMaster sits atop the OUA standings, while Waterloo falls to 3-3 and sits fifth.

Jayson McCarthy had an exceptional night on the wing for McMaster, leading his team and the game with 15 points while converting 12 of 19 hitting attempts versus just three errors (.474) and adding three blocks. Middles Danny Demyanenko and Peter Khodkevych also turned in solid offensive performances, with 13 and 10.5 points respectively on Friday.

The two teams got off to a blazing start in the opening set, trading extended rallies and battling back and forth throughout the frame. It was McMaster that eventually carved out a slim lead, as errors crept into Waterloo's game. The Marauders own efficiency kept the ball out of the Warriors hands, as Waterloo had just 21 hitting attempts in the set versus McMaster's 35.

Waterloo lost out in a close first set, but rebounded strongly in the second, where they led for the majority of play. The Warriors led by as many as five points in the late stages, but the Marauders engineered a late comeback to crucially swing momentum. Two loose passes by Waterloo resulted in two consecutive points for McMaster, pushing them into a lead. That was all the opening that the hosts needed, as they saw out the set to take a dominant two-set lead.

Having lost an opportunity to level the match, the Warriors looked disjointed early in the third set, losing the first four points to the Marauders. Both teams' level of play came down somewhat, but Waterloo was the more error-prone, hitting for a negative percentage while committing 12 errors against just six kills in the third set.

With their opponents struggling to hit the heights of earlier, the Marauders saw out a fairly comfortable third set to win their sixth straight match.