The McMaster men's volleyball team welcomed the Nipissing Lakers to the Burridge Gym for the first time and handed the OUA newbies a 3-0 defeat in the final conference game of the season.

It was also senior recognition night for the men in Maroon, who had clinched first-place in the OUA with Friday's win over York.

Prior to the match, presentations were made to Mac seniors Brendan Dennis, Austin Campion-Smith, Jori Mantha, and Tyson Alexander.

McMaster showed the proper respect to the Lakers, who will not make the playoffs in their first OUA season but look like they have a bright future as the roster is very young. The Marauders used a very balanced attack and took the opening set 25-16.

Mac coach Dave Preston tinkered with his line-up in the second set, but the Marauders were still able to take the lead and carry it through to win 25-19 and take a two-set lead.

The Lakers seemed up for this match with the top-ranked team in Canada and made McMaster work for every point in the third set. The Marauders led 16-10 at the technical timeout but the Lakers were able to fight back and tie the score at 18-18. Not wanting to extend the match any further than necessary, McMaster got some big swings from Mantha, Alexander, and Stephen Maar and closed out the set and the match 25-20.



Mantha led McMaster with 14 kills while Alexander was named the BIG MAC player of the game for a strong overall performance. Nipissing setter Taylor Bielby was the Lakers' player of the game.

Next action for the Marauders will be at the OUA Final-Four being hosted at McMaster on February 21^st and 22^nd. As the top-seed, McMaster will play the lowest remaining seed from the first round of OUA playoffs next week.