McMaster toughed out a 23-25, 25-18, 25-22, 23-25, 15-9 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues at Ryerson's Mattamy Athletic Centre to advance to the Quigley Cup final for a second consecutive year.

If they are to repeat as champions and earn the OUA's sole berth to the U SPORTS Championship tournament in Quebec City next week, the Marauders will have to deal the host Ryerson Rams their first competitive loss of 2017-18 Saturday.

That title contest gets underway at 6:00 p.m. and can be seen live or on demand on OUA.tv.

Eager to keep the final postseason push of her varsity career alive, veteran McMaster outside Aleks Arsovic (Burlington, ON, Notre Dame Roman Cath S S) amassed a match high 21 kills and hit .370 on the left in her team's win, committing just four errors on 46 attempts and adding a block for 22 points.

Also cracking double digits in kills, the middle duo of newly-crowned OUA West Player of the Year Maicee Sorensen (Hamilton, ON, Barton S S) and sophomore Hailey Kranics (Fort Erie, ON, Lakeshore Catholic H S) had 14 and 11 kills respectively and accounted for six and a half blocks between them.

Veteran setter Caitlin Genovy (Stoney Creek, ON, Saltfleet H S) backed up the first all-star selection of her career with a 46-assist night, chipping in 10 digs for good measure.

Toronto's Anna Feore was the Blues most frequent offensive contributor, with team-high totals of 19 kills and 21 points, but was held to just .180 hitting by the Marauders on a whopping total of 50 attempts.

The only conference meeting between the Marauders and Rams fell on the opening night of the 2017-18 season, when McMaster squandered a two-set lead on home court to drop a five-set heartbreaker to Ryerson.

Mac did, however, best Ryerson in a four-set non-conference encounter in September.