Box Score With confidence and energy in the opening set, the Guelph Gryphons teased a match at the Burridge Gym Friday. But eventually, the talent of the no. 3-ranked Marauders carried the day, as McMaster swept Guelph to open the 2016-17 season with a win on home court.
 
It was a strange-looking Marauders team that took to the court to begin the year, for fans whose last memory came in the CIS Championship tournament in March. Gone was OUA Player of the Year Stephen Maar, and Andrew Richards was not only wearing his iconic number seven jersey, but taking the court as the team's setter.
 
Change was the order of the day, and initially it seemed that it may cost the Marauders, who had to dig out of a hole to escape from the opening set with a 27-25 win. But Mac settled in, and a pair of dominant sets, winning 25-12 and 25-11, saw the Marauders machine regain its familiar hum.
 
Jayson McCarthy, fed often on the pass in his favourite front-row spot, was Mac's most effective offensive weapon in the win, with 13 points and 10 kills on 17 attempts versus just two errors (.471).
 
Third-year outside Brandon Koppers, assuming the mantle of McMaster's high-usage outside hitter from Maar in 2016-17, was the match's leading scorer, with 16 points including 12 kills on 21 attempts, two aces and two solo blocks.
 
Richards, in his first regular season action as a setter, had 24 assists over his three sets of work while operating opposite his brother Kyle, who occupies the libero spot for the Gryphons.
 
Leading the Gryphons with six points in the loss, Josh Green was largely buried by the Marauders defence, with six kills versus five errors on 22 attempts (.045).
 
NEXT UP: McMaster travels to Peterborough to take on the Trent Excalibur on Friday, November 4.