Box Score The Marauders and Brock Badgers took their matchup right down to the wire, as McMaster came out victorious in a five-set match in St. Catharines Saturday night.
Set scores were 25-10, 20-25, 25-21, 17-25 and 15-12 in favour of McMaster, who improve to 14-3 with the win.
Drawing level with the Western Mustangs after their rivals' loss to Toronto, the Marauders currently hold the second seed in the OUA West on the basis of the second tiebreaker, having lost one more set to the Mustangs in the teams' head-to-head matches this season.
Outside Joanna Jedrzejewska continued to be a central facet of the Marauders attack, as she led McMaster with 16 points on the night. Jedrzejewska ranks fifth in the OUA in total kills with 182.
Middle Maicee Sorensen also had a strong outing with 15 points, while Aleks Arsovic added 11.5. Carly Heath racked up 30 digs on the defensive front for the Marauders, her second highest performance of the season.
For the Badgers, Breanna Hamilton led her squad with 13 points, while Laura Condotta scored 12.
A lopsided opening set saw the Marauders play to their abilities and win comfortably by a 25-10 margin.
But Brock was hardly ready to go quietly Saturday, and dug in to win the second set, watching as their visitors struggled to create offence at their usual rate.
The Marauders recovered to win a tight third set, but the Badgers once again had a different gear to reach.
Surprising McMaster with their level of play, and strong out-of-system play that kept the Marauders off balance, Brock retook the initiative in set four, and comfortably carried it by an eight-point margin to force a decider.
Ranking second in the OUA for total number of sets played with 67, Brock came out in the fifth with the intent to undo their season-long trend of failing to close out wins.
The final set between the Marauders and Badgers put a cap on a match that could arguably be labeled as one of the most entertaining of their season. The Marauders found themselves trailing the Badgers as Brock doubled up on the visitors 8-4 on the changeover. But Mac responded with a 6-1 run to get ahead of Brock, eventually closing out the set 15-12.
McMaster will return home to Burridge Gym for their last two remaining regular season games against Queens and RMC. Their first will be against the Queens Gaels on Friday, February 24 at 6 p.m. before ending their regular season schedule the following night against RMC.
