For a fourth straight match, the Marauders refused to give away even a single set, as Mac brought out the brooms yet again in Toronto Wednesday.
Mac swept the OUA East-leading Ryerson Rams in straight sets (25-20, 25-19, 25-23) to continue their perfect OUA run for a 12th match. The top team in the OUA West, the no. 3-ranked Marauders remain the only unbeaten team in the country.
A mammoth offensive performance from opposite Jayson McCarthy paced Mac on Wednesday, as the veteran posted 20 points and converted 14 of 25 hitting attempts versus three errors (.440), adding four aces a block and two block assists.
Close in the early stages, it looked as if the first set was getting away from the home side when Craig Ireland wiped wide to give the Marauders a 14-9 lead. The Rams, however, had other ideas, and brought themselves within a point before McMaster called time a point shy of the technical timeout.
Re-establishing their control of the set after the break, the Marauders stretched their lead to six to bring up set points at 24-18 after loose hands from the Rams in the back court gifted Mac a cheap point. Three points later, Mac brought the set to a close when Danny Demyanenko muscled the ball into the back corner for 25-20.
Side-out volleyball reigned to begin the second set, with the Marauders breaking the spell after the technical timeout, which they entered with a 16-13 lead after Jayson McCarthy ended a well-constructed point by carving down from the right.
From there, the Marauders sped to the finish line, and Ryerson was desperately looking for an answer when they called time trailing 21-17 after a crafty play by Craig Ireland saw him tip a broken play down off the block. Six points later, it was over, as strong scramble defence kept the Marauders alive long enough to seal the corner on a double block along the right wing for 25-19.
Ryerson was unfazed by the loss of the first two sets, and stubbornly took a rare lead at 11-9 as their block began to key on David Doty and the Mac offence.
It proved to be a short-lived blip on the Marauders radar, however, as McCarthy led Mac to a 16-15 lead at the technical timeout, from which the visitors would not look back. The veteran opposite got enough on a shot to carry it off the dig and the wall to bring up match points at 24-22, before Peter Khodkevych killed the quick two points later to end the night at the Mattamy.
