LONDON, Ont. – Heading into the final weekend of regular season play, the No. 2 McMaster Marauders cruised to their 13th straight victory with a 3-0 road win (25-18, 26-24, 25-19) over the Western Mustangs.
Fifth-year senior Craig Ireland powered his way to season-highs in kills (15) and points (16.5), leading the maroon offense to a .303 hitting percentage.
Wojtek Kraj continued to be a dominant presence at the net as the Polish import provided six total blocks, including three solo, to help push the Marauders to first in the OUA with 2.32 blocks per set. Kraj added four kills and a pair of aces.
McMaster grabbed the first rally of the night and never looked back, leading by as many as eight points in winning the first set. Western put up more of a fight in the second and even held a three-point edge, but the Marauders riffled off an 8-3 run to take a 2-0 match lead.
The third and final set of the night saw Mac jump out to a 10-5 advantage thanks to Ireland and outside hitter Matt Passalent (five kills). McMaster's lethal offense proved too much as the 'Stangs stumbled down the home stretch. Peter Rugosi would go on to secure the victory with a match-point service ace.
With the win, head coach Dave Preston's squad has now matched win totals from the previous two seasons, and will be looking to claim its best regular season finish since 2016-17 when the Marauders went a perfect 17-0.
NEXT UP: The Marauders will continue their journey west for a showdown with the Windsor Lancers in their final tune-up before Forsyth Cup action kicks off. Having already locked up the top seed, the Marauders have secured a bye to the quarterfinals and will host the low seed in the OUA west on February 29th.
Windsor (9-7) is coming off a 3-0 sweep of the Brock Badgers and currently sits third in the west. Saturday's match against the Lancers is slated for an 8 p.m. first-serve, and can be seen live on OUA.tv.
