Box Score Pressure or not, the Marauders are showing no signs of it, as they continued to add to their win column with a convincing four-set victory (23-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-16) over the Western Mustangs on Saturday.
The Marauders improved to 8-0 on the season, while the Mustangs dropped to .500 at 4-4 following the loss.
Brandon Koppers followed up a strong performance last weekend during a victory against the Guelph Gryphons with a season-high, 22-point performance. Danny Demyanenko returned to the lineup with an 11.5-point performance after sitting out last Saturday against the Gryphons.
Bryn Ramsay would lead the Mustangs with a 10-point performance of his own, while also leading Western's defensive play with nine digs.
Western came into the match after a 3-0 sweep against the Windsor Lancers last weekend, and were hoping to carry the momentum from their own building into McMaster's Burridge Gym when they came to face the Marauders.
The Mustangs beat the Marauders out of the gate in the first set and weren't prepared to make things easy for the home side, as they opened up by taking the first set 25-23. The blocking put forth by the Purple and White proved to be a problem for the no. 2-ranked McMaster squad.
Danny Demyanenko set the tone in the second, finding an open corner to land his first kill of the set as the Marauders opened up the scoring. A brief moment later, Demyanenko followed it up by slamming down a Western free ball with authority. Mac tied things up at one set apiece by winning the second set 25-15. From there, the Marauder men proved why they are the second-ranked team in the country.
After the first set against the Mustangs, McMaster capped Western to no more than 16 points in the next three sets, as the Marauders took the match win and remained undefeated at 8-0 on the season. Facing a tough blocking team in Western, the Marauders responded with a tough defensive showing of their own.
With the win, the Marauders created a four-point cushion between them and the second-placed Guelph Gryphons. The Gryphons have this weekend off after dropping their last two matches, one of which being a 3-1 loss to McMaster.
Next up for the men in Maroon will be against the very same Windsor Lancers that the Mustangs swept one week ago. That match gets underway at 3:00 p.m. at the Burridge Gym.
