Box Score Showcasing their resilience to battle through one of the longest and most dramatic sets of volleyball that the country has seen this season, the Marauders fully earned their ticket to the OUA Final Four on Friday.

McMaster clawed past the Windsor Lancers in three tightly-contested sets (25-17, 36-34, 25-22) in the teams' conference quarterfinal match up to book their spot at the championship weekend.

Power hitter Rebecca Steckle continued to build on her remarkable year with a starring performance in the win, posting a game high of 18.5 points on 16-31 hitting versus six errors (32.3 per cent), an ace and a block and a half. Equally adept on Friday, particularly on the slide, Maicee Sorensen thumped down 11 kills on 25 attempts versus three errors (32 per cent), and added two aces and 1.5 blocks for 14.5 points.

Controlling the Mac offence with an authority that belied her age, setter Michelle Chelladurai racked up 35 assists in the win.

The middle duo of Melissa Smyth and Shannon Dean did their part for the Lancers in a losing effort, with 11 and 10.5 points respectively, while Windsor struggled to get their offence moving as a team, hitting just 14 per cent on the night.

Winning five of the first six points of the night, Windsor was prepared for the occasion at the Burridge Gym. But the Marauders worked their way back into the set, and overtook the Lancers at 12-10 after Taylor Brisebois capped a four-point Sorensen service run with a kill to send the visitors into a timeout.

Errors began to cost the Lancers, who fell further behind as the first set barrelled toward its conclusion. Brisebois reeled off a service run of her own to push Mac ahead 23-14, before Steckle killed to end the set five points later.

Undeterred by the setback, the Lancers hung tough as the second set began, helped by a rash of service errors from the Marauders. Smyth brought her team into the technical timeout with a 16-14 lead after an ace to cap a five-point run, and Windsor looked set to level the match as their lead swelled to five points late on.

But Mac had other ideas, and fought off a pair of set points from 22-24 to drag the teams into extra points. From there, the second evolved into a classic, with the teams playing high-level, side-out volleyball and electrifying the Burridge Gym crowd.

After dodging three more set points, Mac enjoyed two of their own at 28-27 and 29-28, but could not get their final touch to fall, and when Jill Eisenhauer fell into a block, Windsor had another crack at the set at 30-29. In total, Windsor saw nine set points go begging, before Mac sealed the second when Lauren Mastroluisi polished off a long, emotional rally and Sorensen followed with the trusty slide.

Momentum was firmly in Mac's corner, and they rode the wave to a commanding 9-3 lead in the third, after another of Steckle's 16 kills wrapped up an 8-2 run. Carrying a 10-point lead into the technical timeout, the Marauders looked poised to lay down a dominant set, before the Lancers engineered a late fightback. From a 10-20 hole, Windsor put together a 12-4 run, but it was too little too late, as Mac ended the night on a service error from Windsor's McCloskey.

McMaster now awaits the top remaining seed from the OUA East in a semifinal clash at the OUA Final Four on Friday, March 4.