Box Score A year ago, the Western Mustangs shocked the crowd at the Burridge Gym, handing McMaster their only defeat of the regular season in their very first match. There was no danger of a similar fate befalling the Marauders on Friday, as the CIS no. 1-ranked squad dominated the Mustangs from the very first serve en route to their seventh consecutive sweep.

Set scores were 25-13, 25-22, 25-12 in favour of McMaster, who improved to 8-0 with the result and retained their commanding position atop the OUA standings.

Putting together an all-action performance in the win, Andrew Richards was the match's leading scorer with 14 points, including eight kills on 15 attempts versus two errors (.400), three aces and three solo blocks. Middle Danny Demyanenko (11.5) and right side Jayson McCarthy (10.5) also cracked double digits in points, as McMaster put their offensive variety on display.

A barrage from the service line put the Mustangs on the back foot from the opening moments of Friday's game, as Richards uncorked one of his three aces to give the Marauders an 11-5 lead and force Western coach Jim Sage to burn a timeout. That relentless pressure continued as the set wore on, and after killing to bring up set point, Richards forced another point with his serve to seal the set when Brad Hockin could only lift a shaky first pass.

The quality of McMaster's play dropped somewhat in the second set, with hitters appearing tentative in the wake of several attack line violations, and Western was able to stay in touch. After seeing their visitors draw within one point, McMaster rebuilt a three-point lead at the technical timeout on the strength of an Alex Elliott tip, but Western was far from done.

Pushing to level the match, the Mustangs tied the set at 21-all with a Brad Hockin ace, but McMaster crucially reeled off a 4-1 run to avoid the backslide. Setter Andrew Kocur provided the dagger on set point, killing off the second touch to give his team the commanding 2-0 overall lead.

 Reasserting their dominance in the third set, the Marauders once again attacked from the service line with Richards providing pinpoint accuracy, and forcing the Mustangs into a timeout at 11-5 after another spinning ace. It was McCarthy's turn to drop an ace on the Mustangs as his team entered the technical timeout with a nine-pioint lead, and the hosts never looked back from there. After a double block brought up match point, rookie Matt Passalent hammered an attack to the floor from the pipe to bring the night to a close.